CMSS Seminar: The Failure of Tunisia’s Moderate Islamism
Fri, 20 Aug 2021 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Australian Western Standard Time (UTC+8)
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CMSS Seminar by Dr Leila Ben Mcharek on Tunisian politics and the failure of Islamist politics
About this event
CMSS Seminar Series: Religion, State and Societies.
25 July 2021 Events in Tunis: The Failure of Tunisia’s Moderate Islamism
By Dr Leila Ben Mcharek
Date: Friday, 20 August 2021
Time: 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. (AWST)
Online via Zoom: https://uwa.zoom.us/j/83891442447?pwd=eVN0RFl3czhRMHA1YTdqMVV6VnJBUT09
Password: 997237
Tunisia has been hailed as the only bright spot after the Arab Spring revolutions with the North African country completing its transition to a democracy and organising fully democratic parliamentary and presidential elections. Strikingly, the Islamist Ennahda party has been playing a central role in Tunisian politics since the Arab Spring, leading or taking part in successive governments. However, the tumultuous events that took place in Tunisia on 25 July 2021 and the Tunisian President’s decision to dismiss the Prime Minister, freeze parliament for 30 days and suspend lawmakers’ parliamentary immunity, have revealed the extent of the crisis the country has been facing.
This presentation will aim to explain the context that has led to the present crisis and attempt to explain why moderate democratic Islam, represented by Ennahda, fail completely in the post-Arab Spring context to meet the Tunisian people’s expectations.
Speaker
Dr Leila Ben Mcharek completed her PhD within the discipline of Applied Social Sciences at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle University – Paris 3 (France). Her field of study is interdisciplinary and draws on political science, computational linguistics, and communication studies. She had been a Research Fellow within the Centre for Muslim States and Societies at UWA (2015-2018), and worked on the draft of a co-authored book on female radicalization in post-Arab Spring Tunisia. She also consulted to a United Nations body. Since 2000, Leila has lectured and tutored in universities in North Africa and Australia in disciplines including Cultural Studies, Political Science and Anglophone Studies. As a recipient of the Fulbright Fellowship, she was a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (Washington DC). She has also held positions in a diplomatic mission (the British Embassy in Tunis) and in a United Nations agency (Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – OHCHR), focusing on political and human rights analysis, tactical projects planning and capacity building activities implementation. She is currently an independent researcher focusing on developments in North Africa, especially Tunisia, and on jihadism in North Africa, including women jihadism.
For more information:
Dr Azim Zahir, Research Fellow (M:0417800303; azim.zahir@uwa.edu.au)
Centre for Muslim States and Societies
The University of Western Australia
Building 8, Claremont Campus
Tel: (08) 6488 4554
Website: https://www.uwa.edu.au/able/research/centre-for-muslim-states-and-societies
Email: cmss-ss@uwa.edu.au
