Tunisian politician Maya Jribi, the opposition icon and activist during the reign of former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, passed away Saturday afternoon.
The opposition Republican Party announced the death of activist Maya Ben Omar, 58, and said she was one of the most prominent politicians who formed the opposition to the regime of Ben Ali before its toppling in 2011 in the wake of a popular revolution.
In 1983, alongside Ahmad Nejib Chebbi, she helped found the Progressive Socialist Rally (RSP), renamed Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) in 2001. RSP opposed the rule of the late Habib Bourguiba and then the former President Ben Ali.
Maya was the first woman to become secretary-general of an opposition party in 2006 and has been active in several human rights organizations, including the Tunisian League of Human Rights. In October 2007, she took part in a hunger strike protesting the authorities' decisions against the league.
She also participated with the Progressive Party in the first democratic elections during the revolution, which overthrew Ben Ali's rule in 2011. She won a seat in the National Constituent Assembly, which was commissioned to draft a new constitution for the country.
In 2012, the party changed its name to the Republican Party, after entering into a coalition with other parties among the central democratic forces, but it witnessed a setback during the 2014 elections.
The party won only one seat, which coincided with Maya's health problems which forced her to refrain from performing any political activity.
Maya was an advocate for women's rights and equality, which was approved by Tunisia's new constitution during the 2014 elections, particularly in the 2018 municipal elections.
She was a member of a study group looking into the status of women and her social activism promoted her to join an anti-cancer society and to form an association for studies about women and development.
Maya Jribi was among the few who bravely resisted the repression of President Ben Ali's regime in one of the darkest periods of repression against the opposition.
