Farida Ayari

Farida Ayari (1950-2017) was a journalist, film critic, and war correspondent. Born in Tunisia, she pursued her higher education in Paris, studying journalism, political sciences and international relations. She started off her career working at the French magazine Actuel and later worked at Radio France Internationale (RFI), where she was a prominent voice. As a film critic, she wrote about the emergence of feminist themes in African cinema, which she discusses in works like Images of Women (1996). Throughout her career, she reported from conflict zones in the Middle East, the Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa. 

“I made Fatma 75 because, despite everything, women are still not equal to men.”

Interview with Selma Baccar

Farida Ayari, Férid Boughedir, Guy Hennebelle, 1981
CONVERSATION
19.05.2021
EN

“The International Women’s Year provided me with the opportunity to make it [Fatma 75]. I figured that, for the first Tunisian film entirely devoted to this subject, I must not resort to fiction but make an analytical work. Through this film, I set about demystifying what is called ‘the miracle of Tunisian women’s emancipation’.”

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