User:FatimaA12/Ahlem Belhadj

Name: Ahlem Belhadj Born: 1964 Nationality: Tunisian Job: Child psychiatrist Know for: Women's rights activist

Ahlem Belhadj

Ahlem Belhadj is a Tunisian psychiatrist and women's rights campaigner. Serving at various times as president, chair and director of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD), and author of several ATFD publications and other scientifically related articles , Belhadj campaigns for better treatment of women in Tunisia. She successfully fought for the right of women and children to apply for passports without permission of their husband/father. Belhadj led a march of thousands of women against President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali during the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. She is the 2012 winner of the Simone de Beauvoir Prize and placed 18th on Foreign Policy's 2012 list of global thinkers.

Ahlem Belhadj currently works at the child and adolescent psychiatry department, Mongi slim Hospital, University of Tunis El Manar. Ahlem does research in autism , genetics, early intervention and family intervention. The second topic of interest is child psychotraumatism , evaluation and psychotherapy, EMDR.

Early Life

Belhadj grew up in Korba, one of five siblings. Her father was a teacher and mayor of the town for 20 years. A keen athlete, she won many school prizes and competed for the Korba and Stade Nabeulien teams as well as the national team in the long jump and 100m. Belhadj studied medicine at the Medicine School of Tunis where she decided to become a child psychiatrist . She also loved to help children who face personal challenges.

Later, she became interested in politics.  She took part in her first political march on 8 March 1983 (International Women's Day) and there met her future husband Brik Zoghlami, a lawyer who was in a Marxist revolutionary group. 

Belhadj was born and raised in a discriminatory society, which made her career more challenging. Despite the fact that she felt the world was against her, her parents stood with her and helped Ahlem in achieving her dream . Everything that she went through made her a stronger person, and every negative experience she had further strengthened her belief in gender and social equality.

Belhadj was married in 1993 and has two children. Her husband was forced to work in France due to the regime issuing an arrest warrant against him, he later served 8 months in prison. In 2004 Belhadj became president of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD). Belhadj continues to practice medicine and specialises in child psychiatry.

Achievement

Belhadj was chair of the ATFD from 2011 to 2013 and campaigns for gender and social equality. She began her revolutionary state when she joined to the medicine school in Tunisia back in the 80's when she participated in anti-movements against Ben Ali's system, specially by defending women's rights and her freedom. It all began on the 8th of march 1983 during national women's day. During the Jasmine Revolution of 2011 she led marches of thousands of women against President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the revolution later led to the fall of Ali and Tunisia's first-ever democratic elections. She campaigns for new laws to be put in place against domestic violence. In 2015 amendments that she campaigned for brought about the freedom for women and children to apply for their own passports, previously they had to have the permission of their husband/father. She was director of the ATFD by 2014. Since the elections, which brought Islamist parties into power, Belhadj has been concerned by the resurgence of conservative Islamist policies. She has also complained of the disruption of ATFD meetings by government officials in the name of preserving "moral values".

Described as the "Arab Spring’s Tunisian Heroine" she won the Simone de Beauvoir Prize and placed 18th on Foreign Policy's 2012 list of global thinkers.

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