Sophie Bessis
Sophie Bessis | |
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صوفي بسيس | |
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Born | 1947 (age 76–77) |
Nationality | Tunisia, France |
Occupation(s) | journalist historian |
Awards | Jovellanos International Essay Award (2005) |
Sophie Bessis (
A history scholar and former editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine
Biography
Sophie Bessis was born in Tunis in 1947. Her family was part of the Jewish upper middle class.[5] She is the daughter of Juliette Bessis, a historian, professor, and researcher who specialized in the Maghreb and was a Communist militant; and Aldo Bessis, a trade unionist member of the Union syndicale des travailleurs de Tunisie and an expert of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).[6][7]
Bessis moved to France in 1975, where she studied history and worked for some time as a journalist. As a historian, she is the former editor of the weekly,
Bessis is the author of numerous works including a biography of Habib Bourguiba with Souhayr Belhassen. In 2007, she published "Los árabes, las mujeres y la libertad" ("Arabs, women and freedom") which reviewed the inheritance of the Egyptian reformers of the early twentieth century, or the Bourguiba, that enacted in 1956 a law that freed the Tunisians and analyzes the changes of Arab societies and the disappointments of a badly undertaken modernization connected with the development of the Islamists and the return to an identity based solely on the religious norm.[clarification needed] Bessis denounces the identity imprisonment to which women are subjected to in their country and in the Arab world.[citation needed]
In 2017, she published Les Valeureuses ou Cinq Tunisiennes dans l’Histoire,[9] in which she vindicates the story of key women in Tunisia, namely Elissa, the founding Phoenician princess of Carthage (also known as Dido/Didon); the singer and Jewish actress Habiba Msika, who in the 1920s stood out for her transgressive look; Aïcha Sayida Manoubia, the "free saint" of the thirteenth century recognized by the Sufi tradition; Aziza Othmana, legendary Tunisian-Ottoman princess of the seventeenth century; and the feminist Habiba Menchari, whose conference in January 1929 against the use of the veil shocked Habib Bourguiba.[9]
In 2017, Bessis announced the donation of her parents' library, a collection of books and newspapers on the history of Tunisia and the Maghreb, to the National Library of Tunis.[10][11]
Awards
- 2015, Paris Liège literary prize for La Double impasse : l'universel à l'épreuve des fondamentalismes religieux et marchand.[12]
- 2016, Commandeur de l’Ordre de la République.[13]
Selected works
In French
- L’Arme alimentaire, Paris, Maspero, 1979 (ISBN 978-2-707-11109-8)
- La Dernière Frontière : les tiers-mondes et la tentation de l'Occident, Paris, Jean-Claude Lattès, 1983 (notice BnF no FRBNF34725538)
- Femmes du Maghreb l'enjeu, Paris, Jean-Claude Lattès, 1983 (ISBN 978-2-709-61121-3)
- Habib Bourguiba : biographie en deux volumes, Paris, Jeune Afrique, 1988 ; réed. Elyzad, Tunis, 20124
- Mille et une bouches, Paris, Autrement, 1995 (ISBN 978-2-862-60528-9)
- L’Occident et les Autres : histoire d’une suprématie, Paris, La Découverte, 2003 (ISBN 978-2-707-14255-9)
- Les Arabes, les femmes, la liberté, Paris, Albin Michel, 2007
- Dedans, dehors, Tunis, Elyzad, 2010 (ISBN 978-9-973-58028-3)
- La Double impasse : l'universel à l'épreuve des fondamentalismes religieux et marchand, Paris, La Découverte, coll. " Cahiers libres ", 2014(ISBN 978-9-973-58028-3)
- Les Valeureuses : cinq Tunisiennes dans l'histoire, Tunis, Elyzad, 2017 (ISBN 978-9-973-58090-0)
In Spanish
- Mujeres del Magreb, lo que está en juego (1994) Editorial Horas y horas
- El hambre en el mundo (1994)
- Occidente y los otros: historia de una supremacía. (2002) Alianza Editorial
- Las emergencias del mundo: economía, poder alteridad (2005) Nobel
- Los árabes, las mujeres, la libertad (2007) Alianza Editorial
- Mujer y familia en las sociedades árabes actuales. (2010) Editorial Bellaterra
In English
- Equal inheritance for daughters is key to Tunisian women's empowerment[14]
- Western Supremacy: The Triumph of an Idea? Zed Books, 2003[15]
See also
References
- ISBN 978-1-84545-454-8.
- ^ "صوفي بسيس – Charbi Education" (in Arabic). Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ "صوفي بسيس". مرآة تونس (in Arabic). Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ "Tunisian-French Feminist Sophie Bessis: Identity as Folklore - Qantara.de". Qantara.de - Dialogue with the Islamic World. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ "Tunisie : Les livres des Bessis offerts à la Bibliothèque nationale – Kapitalis" (in French). Kapitalis. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- ^ horchani, salah. "Juliette Bessis, mon professeur qui m'a appris à aimer l'histoire, n'est plus" (in French). Club de Mediapart. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- ^ "L'historienne Juliette Bessis, nous quitte (Gabès 1925 – Paris, 18 mars 2017)". L'Humanité (in French). 21 March 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- ^ "Chercheurs | IRIS". www.iris-france.org (in French). Retrieved 27 May 2018.
- ^ a b "" Les Valeureuses " de Sophie Bessis ou le panthéon féminin de la Tunisie". Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 27 May 2018.
- ^ "المؤرّخة التّونسيّة صوفي بسّيس تهدي دار الكتب الوطنيّة مكتبة والديها، جوليات وألدو بسّيس" (in Arabic). Bibliothèque nationale de Tunisie. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- ^ "L'historienne Sophie Bessis fait un don de la bibliothèque de ses parents à la Bibliothèque nationale tunisienne" (in French). Al HuffPost Maghreb. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- ^ "Sophie Bessis – Prix littéraire Paris-Liège". paris-liege.be (in French). Retrieved 27 May 2018.
- ^ "Des compétences tunisiennes décorées des insignes de l'Ordre de la République | Directinfo". Directinfo (in French). Retrieved 27 May 2018.
- ^ Bessis, Sophie. "Equal inheritance for daughters is key to Tunisian women's empowerment". alaraby. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- ISBN 1842772198