Yvonne Hakim Rimpel

Yvonne Hakim-Rimpel (Portu-au-Prince, 1906 – June 28, 1986) was a Haitian feminist journalist and co-founder of Haiti's first feminist organization, the Ligue Féminine d'Action Sociale. A critic of president François Duvalier, she was one of the first victims of the Duvalier dictatorship.

Biography Yvonne Hakim-Rimpel was born in 1906 in Port-au-Prince, the daughter of Marie Louise Horatia Benjamin and Eli Abdallah Hakim. Very young, at age 14, she was forced to marry the groom her parents had chosen for her. From this marriage, she had 4 children, one of whom was stillborn.

In 1935, a newspaper of the League appeared, La Voix des femmes, a journal of expression for women, of which Yvonne was one of the main editors. In 1951, she founded L'Escale, a bimonthly magazine intended to be completely free, where she expressed herself or criticized writers, journalists and politicians in particular. This would be Yvonne's last publication in L'Escale.

On the night of January 5, 1958, while at home with her children, Yvonne Hakim-Rimpel was the victim of a violent attack: she and her two daughters were beaten, then Yvonne was kidnapped. She was found the next day on a road with injuries and signs of sexual assault. This event follows the publication of his criticisms of the government. The men sent to Yvonne Hakim-Rimpel would have acted under the orders of Duvalier, then head of the country.

In 2009, the journalist Liliane Pierre-Paul received the Yvonne Hakim-Rimpel Award.