Gisèle Halimi


Gisèle Halimi was a Tunisian-French lawyer, feminist, and essayist.

Biography

Halimi was born in La Goulette, Tunisia, on 27 July 1927 to a Jewish mother and a Berber 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. She was first married to Paul Halimi, and then to Claude Faux. She died the day after her 93th birthday, on 28 July 2020.

Career

In 1948, Halimi qualified as a lawyer and, after eight years at the Tunis bar, moved to practice 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 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 women's issues, such as the 1972 Bobigny abortion trial, 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 American military action in Vietnam.
In 1971, she founded the feminist group Choisir 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.

Works

TitleEnglish translationTime of first publicationFirst edition publisher/publicationUnique identifierNotes
Djamila Boupacha1962Gallimard
Le procès de BurgosThe Burgos Trials1971
La cause des femmesThe Cause of Women1973
Avortement, une loi en procèsAbortion, a Law on Trial1973
The Right to Choose1977
Viol, Le procès d'Aix: Choisir la cause des femmesRape, the Aix Trial: Choosing the Cause of Women1978
Le Programme commun des femmesThe Common Women's Program1978
Milk for the Orange Tree1988
Une embellie perdueA Lost Beauty1995
La nouvelle cause des femmesThe New Cause of Women1997
Fritna1999
La parité dans la vie politiqueParity in Political Life1999
Avocate irrespectueuseDisrespectful Counsel2002
Le procès de Bobigny: Choisir la cause des femmesThe Bobigny Trial: Choosing the Cause of Women2006Preface by Simone de Beauvoir
La Kahina2006
Ne vous résignez jamaisNever Resign Yourself2009
Histoire d'une passionHistory of a Passion2011Plon

Footnotes