Gisèle Halimi

Gisèle Halimi born Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb 27 July 1927 28 July 2020 was a TunisianFrench lawyer politician essayist and feminist activist Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb was born in La Goulette Tunisia on 27 July 1927 to a modest practicing Jewish Berber family to Edouard and Fortunée Fritna Taïeb She was educated at a French lycée in Tunis and then attended the University of Paris graduating in law and philosophy Her childhood and the ways in which she blends a JewishMuslim identity are discussed in her memoir Le lait de loranger She was first married to Paul Halimi and then to Claude Faux She died the day after her 93rd birthday on 28 July 2020 In 1948 Halimi qualified as a lawyer and after eight years at the Tunis bar moved to practise at the Paris bar in 1956 She acted as a counsel for the Algerian National Liberation Front most notably for the activist Djamila Boupacha in 1960 who had been raped and tortured by French soldiers and wrote a book in 1961 with an introduction by Simone de Beauvoir to plead her case She also defended Basque individuals accused of crimes committed during the conflict in Basque Country and was counsel in many cases related to womens issues such as the 1972 Bobigny abortion trial of a 17yearold accused of procuring an abortion after having been raped which attracted national attention In 1967 she chaired the Russell Tribunal which was initiated by Bertrand Russell and JeanPaul Sartre to investigate and evaluate American military action in Vietnam In 1971 she founded the feminist group Choisir transl To Choose to protect the women who had signed the Manifesto of the 343 admitting to having illegal abortions of which she was one In 1972 Choisir formed itself into a clearly reformist body and the campaign greatly influenced the passing of the law allowing contraception and abortion carried through by Simone Veil in 1974 In 1981 she was elected to the French National Assembly as an independent Socialist and was Deputy for Isère until 1984 Between 1985 and 1987 she was a French legate to UNESCO In 1998 she was a founding member of ATTAC Source Article Gisèle Halimi from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30