Tunisian businesswoman Ouided Bouchamaoui is co-founder of National Dialogue Quartet, an organization that won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.
Claremont, Calif. (September 30, 2016)—Ouided Bouchamaoui, co-founder of National Dialogue Quartet, an organization that won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to build a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia, will speak via Skype in Pitzer College’s George C.S. Benson Auditorium on Friday, October 7, at 11 a.m. Her talk, “How to Save the Country from Collapse: Reflections on the Tunisian Journey,” is part of the Munroe Center for Social Inquiry speaker series, “Islam: Beyond Ideological Narratives.” This event was rescheduled from an earlier date.
The National Dialogue Quartet, a group of four key civil organizations in Tunisia, formed in the summer of 2013 following a revolution that led to the ousting of the then-Tunisian president in 2011. As the president of the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (known as UTICA), Bouchamaoui joined forces with representatives from the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers to establish “an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war,” according to the Nobel Peace Prize announcement.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the National Dialogue Quartet was “instrumental in enabling Tunisia, in the space of a few years, to establish a constitutional system of government guaranteeing fundamental rights for the entire population, irrespective of gender, political conviction or religious belief.”
Bouchamaoui was elected president of the Tunisian Confederacy of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts in 2011. She has also helped helm Bouchamaoui A&R Industries, an international construction company established by her family in the early twentieth century.
“Islam: Beyond Ideological Narratives” is Pitzer College’s Munroe Center for Social Inquiry 2016-17 speaker and event series. In this series, renowned experts are exploring a wide range of issues, including modernity, fundamentalism, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, US involvement in the Middle East and the effects of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. A full list of “Islam: Beyond Ideological Narratives” speakers and events can be found on www.pitzer.edu/MCSI.
