Originally published on Time.com – Sept. 12, 2014
By Stephan Faris
Ikram Ben Said took part in the Arab Spring’s first successful uprising — and then realized that the struggle for women’s rights in Tunisia was just beginning
One of the ironies of the 2011 revolution in Tunisia is that while it was a step forward for democracy, it has always threatened to be a step backwards for women’s rights. Many Tunisians are socially and religiously conservative, and the fall of the autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali gave them a political voice in their country for the first time. In the first free elections in the country history, in 2011, the moderate Islamist Ennahda party took more than a third of the votes, more than four times its nearest rival.
And so when Ikram Ben Said set out to create an organization dedicated to women’s rights that year, it was clear to her that she would have to be inclusive if she was to be successful. Her organization, Aswat Nissa — or Voices of Women — is not the first in the country dedicated to women’s rights, but it’s the first to involve Tunisian women politicians regardless of where they fall of the political spectrum. “Feminism for me is not imposing my choice, my vision of society,” says the 34-year-old activist, who is president of Aswat Nissa. “Feminism is helping women achieving their dreams and assuming their responsibilities and their decisions.”
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