Eight out of twenty-four seats in the new government of Tunisia went to women. This was announced today, after more than two months of stalemate, by President Kais Saied, who on 25 July had effectively assumed full powers. The formation of the new executive was decided by the new prime minister Najla Bouden Romdhane, the first woman in history to hold this post in an Arab country.
At the head of the Justice Department is Najla Jaffel, former Minister of Territorial Affairs in the Mechichi government, who had lost her post due to excessive proximity to President Saied. Two other women will head the Ministry of Infrastructure, Sarah Zaafrani, and of Industry, Neil Nouira Ghandri. At the ministry of trade and export development, Fadhila Rebhi Ben Hamza and two more women at the head of the ministry of culture and women, with respectively Hayet ktat Guermazi and Amel Bel Haj. Environment Minister is Leila Chikhaoui.
Finally, Bouden, who as a lecturer at the National School of Engineering in Tunis and an official of the Ministry of the Interior, was appointed last September 29 by the President of the Republic, as the first woman to hold the role of premier in Tunisia and in the Arab world in general. He is the eleventh head of government since the 2011 revolution, who has been entrusted with the task of quickly forming the new government, after the dismissal of his predecessor, Hichem Mechichi, created a serious political crisis. In his first public speech, he declared that the fight against corruption will be the most important objective “of the new government and promised to” raise the standard of living “of Tunisians and” restore their confidence in the state “.
However, Saied has significantly curtailed the powers of the prime minister’s office and, technically, he will be head of the administration himself. The development in the new government thus comes a full eleven weeks after the president fired the prime minister, suspended parliament and granted himself absolute judicial powers, in a seizure that opponents called a coup. At least 6,000 Tunisians gathered on Sunday against the presidential seizure of power.