In the early 20th century, when medicine remained firmly in the hands of men and colonialism shaped Tunisia’s social landscape, one woman dared to carve a different path.
Dr. Tawhida Ben Cheikh, born in 1909, shattered glass ceilings and redefined the boundaries of possibility for generations of African and Arab women.
In 1928, she became the first Muslim woman in Tunisia to graduate from high school. By 1936, she earned her medical degree in Paris, becoming the first female doctor in the Maghreb.
Her journey—from the classrooms of Tunis to the amphitheatres of the Sorbonne—was fueled by the unwavering support of her widowed mother and the encouragement of leading French bacteriologist Étienne Burnet.
Upon returning home in 1937, she chose to set up her practice not in affluent areas but in Bab Menara, a modest district in the heart of the medina.
There, she quickly became known as “tabiba ettbaa”—the doctor of the poor. Women, who had long been deprived of accessible healthcare, found in her not just a doctor but an ally and advocate.
Her compassion extended far beyond the consultation room. Dr. Ben Cheikh became a trailblazer for women’s reproductive rights in Tunisia.
In the 1960s, as the country embarked on post-independence reforms under President Habib Bourguiba, she led pioneering campaigns on contraception, spearheaded training programmes, and helped launch Tunisia’s first family planning clinic in 1968.
Her activism laid the groundwork for the historic legalization of abortion in 1973.
Her influence was not limited to health.
As vice-president of the Tunisian Red Crescent and founder of the Social Welfare Society, she established orphanages and promoted maternal health education—efforts that significantly reduced maternal and infant mortality rates.
Dr. Ben Cheikh passed away on December 6, 2010, at the age of 101. In the years since, Tunisia has honoured her legacy with stamps, busts, and hospitals bearing her name. In 2020, she became the first woman to feature on a North African banknote—the Tunisian 10 dinar—immortalizing her image in daily life.
Today, nearly half of Tunisia’s doctors are women. Many cite Dr. Tawhida Ben Cheikh not only as a pioneer but as a symbol of what is possible when one woman refuses to accept the limits imposed by her time.
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