Gisèle Halimi, born Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb in 1927, is a French-Tunisian lawyer, feminist activist, and essayist.
Born in La Goulette, to a Jewish mother and father, 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 Jewish-Muslim identity are discussed in her memoir, Le lait de l'oranger. In 1948 she qualified as a lawyer and...
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Gisèle Halimi, born Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb in 1927, is a French-Tunisian lawyer, feminist activist, and essayist.
Born in La Goulette, to a Jewish mother and father, 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 Jewish-Muslim identity are discussed in her memoir, Le lait de l'oranger. In 1948 she qualified as a lawyer and has practised at the Paris bar since 1956. She acted as a counsel for the Algerian National Liberation Front, most notably for the tortured activist Djamila Boupacha in 1960, and wrote a book in 1961 (with an introduction by Simone de Beauvoir) to plead her case. She has also defended Basque terrorists, and has been counsel in many cases related to women's issues, such as the Bobigny abortion trial of 1972 which attracted national publicity.
In 1971 she founded the feminist group Choisir ("To Chose"), to protect the women who had signed the...
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