Bochra Belhaj Hmida



Bochra Belhaj Hmida (بشرى بلحاج حميدة), is a lawyer, politician and activist from Zaghouan Tunisia.

Biography
Bochra Belhaj Hmida has a Law graduate degree. In 1989, she co-created the Democrat Tunisian Women Association (Association Tunisienne des Femmes Démocrates – ATFD) and was the president of the organization from 1994 to 1998.

In 2012, she represented a young woman who survived being raped by police officers. According to her the Ennahda Government is responsible morally and politically.

She joined the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties in 2011. She then run for the constituent assembly election as the leader of the Zaghouan constituency list, but she was not elected.

Bochra Belhaj Hmida is, since September 2012, member of the executive committee of the movement Nidaa Tounes. She got elected at the People Representative Assembly as a representative of the second constituency of Tunis, during the legislative elections of October 2014. She continues, in this electoral term, to call for an evolution of women rights in Tunisia.

Bochra Belhaj Hmida is also president of the Individual Freedom and Equality Commission (COLIBE) initiated by the Tunisian president Béji Caïd Essebsi on August 13th, 2017. It aims to build a report concerning legislative reforms for individual freedom and equality, as required by the 2014 Constitution and by human rights international norms.

As a president of this commission, Bochra Belhaj Hmida leads a reform proposal of legacy between men and women, which generates an intense polemic in Tunisia. Its discussion is programmed for 2019.

Honors
On 13 August 2018, Bochra Belhaj Hmida was distinguished with the insignia of Commander of the Order of Tunisian Republic by the Tunisian President, during national Women's Day. On September 27th 2018, she received an award from the foundation Global Hope Coalition. She was also named politician of the year in 2018 by the Tunisian press. In 2019, she was awarded the Fatima al-Fihriya Prize in recognition of her involvement in the process of individual freedoms and equality in Tunisia.