# Gisèle Halimi

Gisèle Halimi (born Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb, Arabic: زايزا جيزيل إليز طيب; 27 July 1927 – 28 July 2020) was a Tunisian-French lawyer, politician, essayist and feminist activist.

## Biography

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. 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. 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. 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.
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. She died the day following her 93rd birthday, on July 28, 2020.

## Career

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, who had been raped and tortured by French soldiers, writing 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. Halimi served as counsel in many cases related to women's issues, such as the 1972 Bobigny abortion trial (of a 17-year-old accused of procuring an illegal abortion after having been raped), 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.
In 1971, she founded the feminist group Choisir (To Choose) to protect the women who had signed the Manifesto of the 343 admitting to having had illegal abortions, of whom she was one. 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.
In 1981, Halimi was elected to the French National Assembly, as an independent Socialist and served as 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.

## Honors

Honorary member of the Order of Lawyers of Mexico in 1982.
Personality of the Year Award from the Grand Jury of International Distinction in 1983.
Minerva Award from the Club delle Donne, in the "Field of Politics and Social Engagement" section (Rome, October 1985).
Medal of the Paris Bar Association (April 2003).

## Works

| 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

* ↑ 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.
* ↑ "De Tunis à Paris : la généalogie de Gisèle Halimi". rfgenealogie.com (in French). Retrieved 21 August 2024.
* ↑ "HALIMI Gisèle [née ZEIZA Gisèle, Élise, Taïeb]". maitron.fr (in French). 5 April 2023. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
* ↑ "Gisèle Halimi". mairie7.lyon.fr (in French). 7 March 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
* ↑ "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.
* ↑ "Gisèle Halimi - Sa bio et toute son actualité". www.elle.fr (in French). Retrieved 28 July 2020.
* ↑ "L'avocate Gisèle Halimi, défenseuse passionnée de la cause des femmes, est morte". Le Monde (in French). 28 July 2020.
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Une vie : Gisèle Halimi". Brut (in French). 28 July 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
* ↑ 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.
* ↑ Le manifeste des 343 Archived 23 April 2001 at the Wayback Machine
* ↑ "France". UNESCO. 17 October 2007. Archived from the original on 19 October 2003. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
* ↑ "ATTAC founding members" (in French). Archived from the original on 12 April 2011. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
* 1 2 3 4 "HOMMAGE - Gisèle Halimi, de La Goulette au barreau parisien". le petit journal.