Monia Ben Jemia

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Monia Ben Jemia (born October 12, 1958) is a Tunisian law professor, feminist, and the president of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD). She teaches at the University of Carthage. Growing up in a conservative family, she was inspired by the feminist writings of Simone de Beauvoir as a teenager. Her mother was illiterate and the family followed strict gender roles, but Ben Jemia was among the first in her family to pursue higher education. When ATFD was founded, she joined and later became its president. The group works to prevent violence against women, including making incest easier to prosecute and promoting more humane ways to interview children, and it also pushes for stronger legal rights for married women, such as property rights and the ability to be a legal guardian of their children. Ben Jemia believes Tunisia’s democracy will advance only with greater rights for women. She published a novel in January 2021, Grandfather’s Naps: A Tale of Incest.