Maya Jribi

Maya Jribi (January 29, 1960 – May 19, 2018) was a Tunisian politician. From 2006 to 2012, she was the leader of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP). From PDP's merger into the Republican Party in April 2012, until her resignation in 2017, she was the Secretary-General of the centrist party.

Life and political career Her father is from Tatouine, while her mother is from Algeria. She followed her studies in Radès Tunisia, before studying biology at the University of Sfax, from 1979 to 1983. During that period, she became involved and an active member of the student union, known as UGET, and the Tunisian League of Human Rights. She wrote for the independent weekly Erraï and later for the PDP-newspaper Al Mawkif.

From 1 to 20 October 2007, Jribi, along with Najib Chebbi, engaged in a hunger strike to protest against the forced move of the party's headquarters from Tunis, which caused serious health implications for her. She presented her candidacy for the presidency of the Constituent Assembly of Tunisia on November 22. She was however defeated by the secretary general of Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties ( Ettakatol), Mustapha Ben Jaafar who was elected by 145 votes to 68 in his favor.

Maya Jribi was an outspoken feminist. and proposed to disallow Israeli pilgrims to visit the El Ghriba synagogue on Djerba island.

Maya Jribi, announced her retirement, during the Republican Party convention in 2017.

In March 2018, the Center for Research, Studies, Documentation and Information on Women paid tribute to her for her noble political life.

On 19 May 2018 she died of cancer.

The President of Tunisia, in an official statement, called her death the loss of a "sincere activist" and saluted her human qualities and political career.

Decorations

Commander of the Order of the Republic of Tunisia (2015) Knight of National Order of Merit of Tunisia (2014)

Tributes In March 2018, the Center for Research, Studies, Documentation and Information on Women paid tribute to her for her militant political career. the President of the Tunisian Republic deplored, in an official press release, the loss of a “Sincere activist” and saluted her human qualities and her political career.

On May 21, the Ministry of Women's Affairs announced that the main hall meetings at the ministry's headquarters now bear the name of Maya Jribi.