Abir Moussi

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Abir Moussi
عبير موسي
MP
Abir Moussi, Carthage Plus, April 2019
Member of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People for Tunis 2
Assumed office
13 November 2019
President of Free Destourian Party
Assumed office
13 August 2016
Personal details
Born (1975-03-15) 15 March 1975 (age 49)
Jemmal, Tunisia
Political partyFree Destourian Party (2013–present)
Other political
affiliations		Democratic Constitutional Rally (2000–2011)
Independent (2011–2013)
Children2
Alma materTunis University
OccupationLawyer
ProfessionPolitician

Abir Moussi (Arabic: عبير موسي; born 15 March 1975) is a Tunisian lawyer and politician. She has been the president of the Free Destourian Party since 2016 and a member of Parliament since 2019. Abir Moussi is considered one of the most important and famous Tunisian politicians who defend the civil state and Bourguiba's approach. She is also known for her absolute rejection of political Islam movements and all forms of confusion between religion and politics. On October 3, 2023, Abir Moussi was arrested in front of the presidential palace of Carthage, in a series of political arrests and crackdown on the opposition launched by Tunisian president Kais Saied.[1]

Biography[edit]

Abir Moussi was born on 15 March 1975, in Jemmal to a father working in the national security service (from Beja) and a mother who was a teacher (from Bab Souika).[2][3][4]

Professional career[edit]

Holder of a master's degree in law and a DEA in economic and business law, she became a lawyer at the Bar of the Court of Cassation, the highest court in Tunisia.[3] She is also vice-president of the municipality of Ariana, president of the litigation committee and member of the national forum of lawyers of the Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) and secretary general of the Tunisian Association of Victims of Terrorism.[3]

Political career[edit]

On 10 January 2010, she was appointed Assistant Secretary General in charge of Women at RCD.[3] Following the fall of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's regime and the dissolution of the RCD in 2011, which she opposed as a lawyer,[5] Moussi joined the Destourian Movement, founded by former Prime Minister Hamed Karoui.[6] On 13 August 2016, Moussi was appointed President of the Destourian Movement, renamed the Free Destourian Party.[2] Regularly referred to as an extreme right-wing party,[7] the latter brings together sympathisers of the former Democratic Constitutional Rally which dominated the country before the revolution.[8][9][10] She therefore does not recognize the 2014 Constitution[10] and advocates for the establishment of a presidential system.[11]

Moussi has declared herself opposed to the decriminalization of homosexuality.[12] On 16 August 2018, the NGO Association of Help, Homosexual Defense for the Equality of Sexual Orientations (ADHEOS) called for Moussi to be banned from the Schengen Area following homophobic and hate speech, in which she called for the systematic imprisonment of homosexuals, whom she associated with criminals.[13][14] The NGO also called on the authorities to take measures to protect the rights of homosexuals in the Schengen area. In March 2019, Moussi declared in an interview with the Pan-African Jeune Afrique magazine "I will not legislate on people's privacy. I will ban anal testing, except for rape and felony".[15]

Although she is in favor of equality between men and women in matters of inheritance, Moussi is opposed to the current government's plan to implement it, arguing that by extending rights to children born out of wedlock, it represents an attack on the institution of the family.[16][17][18] The proposal of the Individual Freedoms and Equality Committee (COLIBE) to introduce this equality while leaving the legatees the choice of using the old system based on the Qur'an also attracts criticism from the candidate, who sees it as "the door open to customary marriages and discrimination between women themselves".[11]

In June 2020, Moussi sharply criticized speaker of the parliament Rached Ghannouchi and his political party the Ennahda Movement for his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and for spreading Islamist ideology in Tunisia. Moussi claimed that Ghannouchi were trying to divide Tunisians based on religious views and re-write Tunisian history.[19]

On 3 October 2023, Moussi was detained after being arrested at the entrance to the Carthage Palace.[20][21]

Electoral history[edit]

Legislative elections[edit]

In the 2014 legislative election, Abir Moussi was the president of the electoral liste of the Free Destourian Party in the constituency of Béja, her list got 1.05% (836 votes)[22] and she failed to enter the parliament.

In the 2019 legislative election she was again candidate, this time she was head of the list of her party in the second constituency, she got 15.8% (26.076 votes) and came in second place just after the Heart of Tunisia list,[23] she got elected deputy.[24]

Presidential elections[edit]

Abir Moussi was the candidate of her party to the 2019 presidential election where she got 4% of the votes (135,461 votes) and came in 9th place and therefore eliminated since the first round.[25] She was the woman who got the most votes in a presidential elections in Tunisia's history.

Election year # of total votes % of overall vote # of seats
2014 11,403 0.33%
0 / 217
2019 189,356 6.63%
17 / 217

Personal life[edit]

She is married and has two daughters.[3]

Distinctions[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Les détails de l'arrestation de Abir Moussi". 4 October 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Biographie de Abir Moussi, candidate à l'élection présidentielle anticipée" [Biography of Abir Moussi, candidate in the anticipated presidential election]. Kapitalis (in French). Archived from the original on 9 September 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Biographie de Mme Abir Moussi" [Biography of Mrs. Abir Moussi]. Turess. Archived from the original on 21 April 2019.
  4. ^ "Tunisie : Abir Moussi, portrait d'une Benaliste convaincue" [Tunisia: Abir Moussi, portrait of a convinced Ben Ali-ist]. Archived from the original on 15 June 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ "Tunisie : Abir Moussi, portrait d'une Benaliste convaincue". Jeune Afrique (in French). 1 March 2019. Archived from the original on 20 March 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  6. ^ "Tunisie : ces anciens cadres de l'ère Ben Ali qui ont su rebondir – Jeune Afrique" [Tunisia: these former executives of the Ben Ali era who knew how to bounce back]. Jeune Afrique (in French). 1 November 2018. Archived from the original on 16 November 2018.
  7. ^ Aidani, Khalil. "La nouvelle extrême-droite tunisienne" [Tunisia's new far right]. HuffPost Maghreb (in French). Archived from the original on 30 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Tunisie : Hamed Karoui lance une initiative pour rassembler les destouriens" [Tunisia: Hamed Karoui launches an initiative to bring the Destourians together]. GlobalNet News (in French). Archived from the original on 1 July 2019.
  9. ^ "Le Mouvement Destourien rebaptisé le Parti Destourien Libre" [The Destourian Movement renamed the Free Destourian Party]. Radio SHEMS FM (in French). Archived from the original on 26 May 2018.
  10. ^ a b Delmas, Benoît (1 August 2019). "Tunisie : ces favoris de la présidentielle" [Tunisia: these are the presidential favorites]. Le Point (in French). Archived from the original on 10 August 2019.
  11. ^ a b Dahmani, Frida (1 July 2019). "Tunisie – Abir Moussi : " Nous voulons instaurer un régime présidentiel "". Jeune Afrique (in French). Archived from the original on 16 July 2019.
  12. ^ "Abir Moussi : l'homosexualité peut affecter le modèle familial tunisien" [Abir Moussi: Homosexuality can affect the Tunisian family model]. BusinessNews.com.tn (in French). Archived from the original on 13 September 2019.
  13. ^ "L'ONG ADHEOS appelle l'Etat français à interdire l'espace Schengen à l'extrémiste tunisienne Abir Moussi – ADHEOS" [The NGO ADHEOS calls on the French state to ban Tunisian extremist Abir Moussi from the Schengen area – ADHEOS]. ADHEOS (in French). Archived from the original on 16 February 2019.
  14. ^ "L'ADHEOS appelle à interdire l'espace Schengen à Abir Moussi" [ADHEOS calls for Abir Moussi to be banned from the Schengen area]. ADHEOS (in French). Archived from the original on 19 August 2019.
  15. ^ "Tunisie : Abir Moussi, portrait d'une Benaliste convaincue – Jeune Afrique". 19 March 2019.
  16. ^ "Abir Moussi : le principe de l'égalité successorale légitimera les enfants nés hors-mariage" [Abir Moussi: the principle of equal inheritance will legitimize children born out of wedlock]. BusinessNews.com.tn (in French). Archived from the original on 23 August 2018.
  17. ^ "Selon le PDL, l'égalité dans l'héritage entre l'enfant légitime et l'enfant naturel est une menace à l'institution de la famille" [According to the Free Destourian Party, equality in inheritance between the legitimate child and the natural child is a threat to the institution of the family.]. HuffPost Maghreb (in French). Archived from the original on 19 August 2018.
  18. ^ Boukhayatia, Rihab. "Présidentielles : L'égalité à l'héritage, ligne de clivage symptomatique" [Presidential: Inheritance equality, a symptomatic dividing line]. Nawaat (in French). Archived from the original on 14 October 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  19. ^ "Tunisian MP Abir Moussi Slams MB-Affiliated Parliament Speaker Ghannouchi In Fiery Speech: We Will Not Let You Implement Your Dark Plans; Tunisia Will Remain Modern And Secular" (in Arabic). Middle East Research Institute. 3 June 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  20. ^ "Tunisie : arrestation de la cheffe d'un parti d'opposition" [Tunisia: arrest of the leader of an opposition party]. Le Figaro (in French). 3 October 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  21. ^ Amara, Tarek (3 October 2023). "Tunisia detains Abir Moussi, prominent opponent of president". Reuters. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  22. ^ "الانتخابات التشريعية 2014: ورقة كشف نتائج دائرة باجة" (PDF). isie.tn (in Arabic). 2014.
  23. ^ Dorsaf, Laameri (8 October 2019). "Elections législatives- Résultats préliminaires à la circonscription de Tunis 2". Tunisie.
  24. ^ "Législatives en Tunisie : Ennahdha en tête avec 52 sièges, selon les résultats officiels" [Legislators in Tunisia: Ennahda in the lead with 52 seats, according to official results]. Jeune Afrique (in French). 1 October 2019. Archived from the original on 3 January 2020.
  25. ^ Dejoui, Nadia (16 September 2019). "ISIE: résultats préliminaires de l'élection présidentielle 2019".
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