Azza Ghanmi

Azza Ghanmi is a Tunisian academic and feminist, widely recognized for her contributions to the advancement of women's rights within Tunisia and on the international stage.

In the late 1970s, Ghanmi played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Club d’Etude de la Condition de la Femme at the Club Tahar Haddad. This initiative, undertaken in collaboration with fellow feminist activists, promoted substantive discussions concerning the status of Tunisian women.

In 1985, she played a crucial role in the establishment of Nissa, a feminist magazine that ran until 1987 and served as a platform for the dissemination of feminist discussions.

Ghanmi's dedication to gender equality has extended beyond national borders, as she aligned with the l’Association des femmes africaines pour la recherche et le développement (AFARD), commonly recognized as the Association of African Women for Research and Development. This organization advocated upholding the rights of children and women on the international stage. Ghanmi also published Le Mouvement Féministe Tunisien in 1993, a book which discusses themes of autonomy and diversity in regards to the Tunisian feminist movement in the 1980s, and is composed of documents and reports on various events in which the author took part, all in chronological order and accompanied by her commentary.

Ghanmi's advocacy also extended to ensuring compliance with the International Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), to which Tunisia became a signatory in 1985. She is committed to universal human rights conventions and positions herself as a steadfast proponent of women's and children's rights.

Personal life
Born in Tunis, Ghanmi pursued a degree in medicine in the capital city before transitioning to a career in education.

She was married to Gilbert Naccache, a Jewish left-wing Tunisian activist and former political prisoner who passed away in 2020 at a Paris hospital. The two would often participate in activism together.

Currently, she serves as a dedicated teacher in secondary schools, where she actively participates in the training of paramedical professionals.

Early feminism
Notable among Ghanmi's early feminist initiatives is her co-founding of a women's club in 1979 at the Tahar al-Haddad Cultural Center in Tunis, named "Club d'Etude de la Condition de la Femme" (The Tahar Haddad Club for the Study of Women’s Condition). Ghanmi and other members of the club sought to create a democratic space for women to engage with anti-imperialist and feminist thinking within the larger context of a Tunisian autonomous feminist movement mobilized by educated and radicalized young women. The club also sought to build solidarity with other causes, such as Palestinian and Maghrebi women's advocacy. Within the club, Ghanmi was a part of the focus group dedicated to "Women and the Family," including discussion of how diverse sexualities impact women's experiences of oppression. She stopped attending club meetings at the Cultural Center by 1982 amid waves of internal conflicts among over the effectiveness of the group's advocacy and methodology.

In the wake of events of mass unrest in the early 1980s such as the Sabra and Shatila Massacre and Israel's invasion of Lebanon, Ghanmi became involved with an early iteration of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, a human rights foundation dedicated to protecting the civil rights of Tunisian women through democratic measures.

Later involvement in organizations
Ghanmi, along with fellow Tunisian feminist scholar Dorra Mahfoudh, is a co-founder and member of two Tunisian feminist groups, the Association of Tunisian Women for Research and Development (AFTURD), created in January 1989, and the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD), founded in August 1989, for which Ghanmi served as secretary general. The AFTURD was created with the intention to promote research of women’s status and integration in Tunisia in the cultural, social, economic, and political realms, while the AFTD focuses more on the way religious influence and the absence of democratic standards in Tunisia affects women’s rights, particularly as it relates to international standards. In addition, she is allied with the Association of African Women for Research and Development (AFARD), established in December 1977 to assemble African feminists and intellectuals to improve women's status and rights throughout the continent.

Within these groups, Ghanmi focused on several themes including gender roles in the family, equal education between sexes, women’s image in the media, and the status/role of women in the rural world, through a liberal lens. Although not a member of the National Union of Tunisian Women (UNFT), created in 1956 to promote women’s rights and radical reforms as well as family planning awareness in independent Tunisia, Ghanmi wrote of the "alliances," or professional women's leagues, that the UNFT produced in 1982 as a way to increase its relevance as other feminist groups and organizations arose during the autonomous feminist movement in Tunisia. Ghanmi described how the creation of these alliances was just the first step of what would become a pattern of appropriation by the UNFT of the autonomous feminist movement.

Nissa magazine
In 1985, Ghanmi co-founded Nissa, a journal addressing women's issues, with other Tunisian feminists. Over the two years Nissa existed, its eight issues advocated for women’s rights. It operated with Emma bel-Hajj as the director, but emphasized collective decision-making; all internal decisions were made on a democratic basis. Internal disputes arose within Nissa primarily around articles criticizing the Personal Status Code and whether to accept writers of both sexes. Director Emma bel-Hajj hesitated to release specific standards on how to address the Personal Status Code in Nissa and decided to assess the question based on individual articles. After internal debates on whether Nissa should reinforce a dichotomous view of gender, the group eventually decided to allow men to contribute. Dissatisfied with the group’s decisions on such issues, Azza Ghanmi, Zeineb Guehiss, Nadia Hakimi, and Neila Jrad published an article in Nissa criticizing the journal for distancing itself from its primary objectives. The four feminists announced their withdrawal from the group in November 1985.