Ahlem Belhadj

Ahlem Belhadj (; 1964 – 11 March 2023) was 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), Belhadj campaigned 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 or father. Belhadj led a march of thousands of women against President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali during the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. She was the 2012 winner of the Simone de Beauvoir Prize and placed 18th on Foreign Policys 2012 list of global thinkers.

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.

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 married in 1993 and had two children. Her husband was forced to work in France due to the regime issuing an arrest warrant against him; he later served eight months in prison.

Belhadj was chair of the ATFD from 2011 to 2013 and campaigned for gender and social equality.