Gisèle Halimi

Gisèle Halimi
Halimi in 2009
Permanent Representative of France to UNESCO
In office
13 April 1985 – 1 September 1986
PresidentFrançois Mitterrand
Preceded byJacqueline Baudrier
Succeeded byMarie-Claude Cabana
Member of the National Assembly
for Isère's 4th constituency
In office
21 June 1981 – 9 September 1984
Preceded byJacques-Antoine Gaur
Succeeded byMaurice Rival
Personal details
Born
Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb

(1927-07-27)27 July 1927
La Goulette, Tunis, Tunisia
Died28 July 2020(2020-07-28) (aged 93)
7th arrondissement of Paris, France
NationalityTunisian
French
Spouse(s)Paul Halimi (divorced)
Claude Faux
Children3 (including Serge Halimi)
Alma materUniversity of Paris
Sciences Po
ProfessionLawyer
Signature

Gisèle Halimi (born Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb; 27 July 1927 – 28 July 2020) was a Tunisian-French lawyer, politician, essayist and feminist activist.[1]

Biography

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Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb was born in La Goulette, Tunisia, on 27 July 1927 to a practicing Jewish Berber family. Her father, Edouard Taïeb, began as a courier in a law office before becoming a notary clerk and then a legal expert. He was naturalized as a French citizen in 1928.[2] Her mother, Fortunée "Fritna" Mettoudi, conformed to society's expectations of traditional womanhood, which Halimi cited as the reason for her own early feminist engagement.[3] When Gisèle was born, her parents hid her birth for three weeks because at that time giving birth to a daughter was perceived as a curse.[4] At 12 years old, she refused to wait on her brothers and went on a hunger strike to protest the gender roles enforced by her family. At 15, she refused to marry a rich oil merchant much older than herself.[5]

She was educated at a French lycée in Tunis, then attended the University of Paris, graduating in law and philosophy. She had three sons: Serge, a journalist, and Jean-Yves, a lawyer, from her first marriage to Paul Halimi, and Emmanuel Faux, a journalist, from her second marriage to Claude Faux.[6] She died the day following her 93rd birthday, on July 28, 2020.[7]

Career

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In 1948, Halimi qualified as a lawyer and, after eight years at the Tunis bar,[8] moved to practise at the Paris bar in 1956.[8] She acted as a counsel for the Algerian National Liberation Front, most notably for the activist Djamila Boupacha, who had been raped and tortured by French soldiers,[8] writing a book in 1961 (with an introduction by Simone de Beauvoir) to plead her case.[8] She also defended Basque individuals accused of crimes committed during the conflict in Basque Country. Halimi served as counsel in many cases related to women's issues,[8] such as the 1972 Bobigny abortion trial (of a 17-year-old accused of procuring an illegal abortion after having been raped),[8] which attracted national attention.

In 1967, she chaired the Russell Tribunal, which was initiated by Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre to investigate and evaluate U.S. military action in Vietnam.[citation needed]

In 1971, she founded the feminist group Choisir (To Choose)[9] to protect the women who had signed the Manifesto of the 343 admitting to having had illegal abortions, of whom she was one.[8][10] In 1972, Choisir evolved into a clearly reformist body, and its campaign greatly influenced the passage of the law allowing contraception and abortion carried through by Simone Veil in 1974.[citation needed]

In 1981, Halimi was elected to the French National Assembly,[8] as an independent Socialist and served as Deputy for Isère until 1984. Between 1985 and 1987, she was a French legate to UNESCO.[11]

In 1998, she was a founding member of ATTAC.[12]

Honors

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Honorary member of the Order of Lawyers of Mexico in 1982.[13]

Personality of the Year Award from the Grand Jury of International Distinction in 1983.[13]

Minerva Award from the Club delle Donne, in the "Field of Politics and Social Engagement" section (Rome, October 1985).[13]

Medal of the Paris Bar Association (April 2003).[13]

Works

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Title English translation Time of first publication First edition publisher/publication Unique identifier Notes
Djamila Boupacha 1962 Gallimard ISBN 978-2070205240
Le procès de Burgos The Burgos Trials 1971 ISBN 978-2070279487
La cause des femmes The Cause of Women 1973 ISBN 2-246-00028-9
Avortement, une loi en procès Abortion, a Law on Trial 1973 ISBN 2-246-00028-9
The Right to Choose 1977 ISBN 0-7022-1433-7
Viol, Le procès d'Aix: Choisir la cause des femmes Rape, the Aix Trial: Choosing the Cause of Women 1978 ISBN 978-2070353989
Le Programme commun des femmes The Common Women's Program 1978 ISBN 2-246-00572-8
le Lait de l'Oranger Milk for the Orange Tree 1988 ISBN 0-7043-2738-4
Une embellie perdue A Lost Beauty 1995 ISBN 2-07-073788-8
La nouvelle cause des femmes The New Cause of Women 1997 ISBN 2-02-031973-X
Fritna 1999 ISBN 2-259-19134-7
La parité dans la vie politique Parity in Political Life 1999 ISBN 2-11-004376-8
Avocate irrespectueuse Disrespectful Counsel 2002 ISBN 2-259-19453-2
Le procès de Bobigny: Choisir la cause des femmes The Bobigny Trial: Choosing the Cause of Women 2006 ISBN 2-07-077515-1 Preface by Simone de Beauvoir
La Kahina 2006 ISBN 2-259-20314-0
Ne vous résignez jamais Never Resign Yourself 2009 ISBN 978-2-259-20941-0
Histoire d'une passion History of a Passion 2011 Plon ISBN 2-259-21394-4

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Lawrence D. Kritzman; Brian J. Reilly; Malcolm DeBevoise (September 2007). The Columbia History of Twentieth-Century French Thought. Columbia University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-231-10790-7. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  2. ^ "De Tunis à Paris : la généalogie de Gisèle Halimi". rfgenealogie.com (in French). Retrieved 21 August 2024.
  3. ^ "HALIMI Gisèle [née ZEIZA Gisèle, Élise, Taïeb]". maitron.fr (in French). 5 April 2023. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
  4. ^ "Gisèle Halimi". mairie7.lyon.fr (in French). 7 March 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
  5. ^ "Gisèle Halimi : "À 12 ans, j'ai fait une grève de la faim parce que les filles servaient les garçons"". radiofrance.fr (in French). 28 July 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
  6. ^ "Gisèle Halimi - Sa bio et toute son actualité". www.elle.fr (in French). Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  7. ^ "L'avocate Gisèle Halimi, défenseuse passionnée de la cause des femmes, est morte". Le Monde (in French). 28 July 2020.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h "Une vie : Gisèle Halimi". Brut (in French). 28 July 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  9. ^ Raylene L. Ramsay (2003). French women in politics: writing power, paternal legitimization, and maternal legacies. Berghahn Books. pp. 135–139. ISBN 978-1-57181-081-6. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  10. ^ Le manifeste des 343 Archived 23 April 2001 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "France". UNESCO. 17 October 2007. Archived from the original on 19 October 2003. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
  12. ^ "ATTAC founding members" (in French). Archived from the original on 12 April 2011. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
  13. ^ a b c d "HOMMAGE - Gisèle Halimi, de La Goulette au barreau parisien". le petit journal.

References

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Further reading

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  • General Paul Aussaresses, The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria, 1955-1957. (New York: Enigma Books, 2010) ISBN 9781929631308.
  • Natalie Edwards, The Autobiographies of Julia Kristeva, Gisèle Halimi, Assia Djebar and Hélène Cixous : beyond "I" versus "we". (Chicago: Northwestern University, 2005) ISBN 0542173042.