Nurse Amina Ben Hammou beamed with pride when President Kais Saied named Najla Bouden Romdhane as Tunisia's first woman prime minister on Wednesday.

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"I am optimistic about a woman being prime minister, so let's try it," she said.

"And I imagine, according to my opinion, that a woman will make Tunisia succeed because women are serious, combative, and patient, and these three things are very important."

Saied asked Bouden, a little-known professor of geophysics who implemented World Bank projects at the education ministry, to form a government quickly amid a political crisis following his near-total seizure of power.

Last week, Saied suspended most of the constitution, saying he could rule by decree during an "exceptional" period with no set ending, calling into question democratic gains after Tunisia's Arab Spring uprising in 2011.

Elected in 2019, Saied has been under domestic and international pressure to name a government after he dismissed the prime minister, suspended parliament, and assumed executive authority in July in moves his foes call a coup.

However, Bouden's appointment marks a social advance in the Muslim country, which has some of the most progressive laws governing women's rights in North Africa and the Middle East.

Religion-based personal status laws govern marriage, child custody, divorce, and inheritance although activists say Tunisia still discriminates in men's favor when it comes to inheritance rights.

Saied asked Bouden to propose a cabinet in the coming hours or days "because we have lost a lot of time.".

His closest adviser is also a woman - presidency office director Nadia Akacha. She had been tipped as one of the likely candidates for prime minister before he tapped Bouden.

Women have only rarely held senior political roles in Arab countries. Yet Saied's actions raise questions over whether Bouden will be given the tools to govern in a nation facing a crisis in public finances after years of economic stagnation were aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic and political infighting.

The new government urgently needs financial support for the budget and debt repayments after Saied's changes put talks with the International Monetary Fund on hold.

Bouden's appointment lifted some spirits, despite the limitations she will face.

"We were waiting for this moment, and I imagine that any woman, not only in Tunisia, but in the world, and any woman in the free world, is waiting at a moment like this that a woman is appointed to this position," said teacher Mouna Ben Sad.

'I just hope that she will do a good job and I hope that she will carry out a good program."

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Nineteen years ago precisely, on Apr. 11, 2002, there was a bombing at a synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia. A truck fitted with explosives blew up by the entrance of the El Ghriba synagogue, killing 19 people. Since then, the local Jewish community has lived in relative peace, that is until a few months ago when the police and local residents began to harass them, the Jewish residents claim.

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"About a month and a half ago, the president of Tunisia [Kais Saied] accused Jews of terrible things, and then apologized and said that he is not against Jews in Tunisia," one Jewish resident, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from local authorities, said.

"Despite his apology, the Jews of Djerba have been suffering from antisemitism ever since. On Pesach, a 10-year-old boy, the grandson of [chief Tunisian] Rabbi Haim Bittan, was walking in the street when he was attacked by someone, for no logical reason.

"Last week, an 18-year-old Jewish girl was attacked by two men on motorcycles. They tried to strangle her, but when she screamed, the neighbors rushed to her help, and the motorcyclists fled.

"We are terrified. It is not simple to live this way. The police have changed their attitude, and they check us all the time, harass us, every time they enter our quarter they hounds us.

"One of the policemen, who saw my ID that states that I am Jewish, detained me for half an hour for no reason. They are really harassing us.

"Each time they enter our quarter, they ask us to stand on the sides. It reminds us of dark times, and we want this to stop. We are living in fear.

"Even though the police did catch the motorcyclists who attacked the girls and came to calm [us down,] ever since the president took office, he has been inciting against us, and we are suffering. There are about 1,200 Jews in Djerba now, and everyone is talking about the difficult days we are living through. It's been a few days since Holocaust Remembrance Day, and 2021 has no room for hatred."

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"'Normalization' is the wrong word to use," said Kaïs Saïed in response to a question in the final televised presidential debate about the warming of relations between the Jewish state and the Arab and Muslim world. "We should be talking about high treason," he said.

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Saïed defeated rival Nabil Karoui with 77% of the votes in Sunday's election.

While Saïed said that Jews with passports other than Israeli ones were welcome to visit Tunisia's synagogues, there should be no "dealings with Zionists."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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