Mettre en lumière des femmes d\'exception aux horizons différents, afin d\'inspirer et de donner de l\'espoir au reste de la Communauté des Femmes

TdF : Hello Fériel and welcome to ‘Tonalités de Femmes’, tell us about your commitments: for women’s rights first of all, and for the development of the African continent through the promotion of its cultural know how.

I think it’s important to distinguish commitments you take on, which can be appreciated through their moral, humanitarian or universal values, and the way you take them on. I am lucky enough to be able to spread the message through my work and help those whom are rarely given a voice express themselves; promote ethics, like a humane and cultural vision made up of difference and sharing. With my modest means I try to spread my message in an increasingly inhumane world. It sometimes happens to me that I cry from powerlessness and rage, but usually this does not last long, my volcanic temper quickly regains the upper hand. Besides, do we really have a choice with all the challenges we face today?

These commitments reflect a personal journey, a reflection and an education which guided me to make important choices in my life. I could have had a career and a job, which would have brought me recognition and financial comfort I do not have today. I made the choice without hesitation to commit myself to a struggle, which I find even more important now that I have children, that is the promotion of women in society and the spreading of culture, trying to prove that it is the differences that bring us together.

By nature and through education the archetype of the submissive woman and the cliché of the Arab woman nicely waiting around is too much for me!!! It’s time for women and we have to get a move on, we can’t continue being spectators to our destiny. I am, of course, aware I am small in facing my struggles and all the women who are in the shadow and are suffering. I am their loudspeaker; I give them space to express themselves through my activities, my articles and my network. I want people to understand that the condition of women will reflect what our world will be like. We have to protect her, we have to respect her and we have to stop the socio-cultural and religious determinisms that want to choke her.
Also there is the circulation of culture, the preservation of peoples’ identity heritage. Through the organisation I created, United Fashion For Peace, I try to defend, to promote the fashion artists and artisans, the cultural know-how and their identities. This is also a difficult struggle, which often finds itself confronted with short-term pragmatism, sometimes from policies and companies that could support us. I hope that one day, the leaders of the world, who took us on this forced journey of globalisation, realise that what is left of a civilisation, of a society, is art and culture. And that the support for initiatives such as mine is worth devoting some resources to.

TdF: Tell us a little about your childhood, where did you grow up and what are the values that were transmitted to you through your education?

I grew up surrounded by diplomacy, by protocol; I saw the greatest political personalities of my region parade by when I was a child. I grew up in the most beautiful Embassies of my country of origin in the shadow of an overbearing father, whom I still admire today for his ethics and his love for the country. But when I was very young I was rebellious, I caused a lot of confusion in my environment, not really wanting to conform to the etiquette, the not so diplomatic daughter of a diplomat in a way… today my father is very proud, even if he has a hard time expressing it. I am the ultimate product of the family, people often say I am my father’s feminine version! A daughter never cuts the ties with her father, you know!
I undoubtedly learned less from my mother, who nevertheless played a significant role, which is often the case with ambassador’s wives who are always hosting and representing during many Embassy organised events. But let’s say I am neither very ‘cordon bleu’, nor a homemaker.

So I was lucky enough to come in contact with different cultures, religions and people, from a very young age. This is an introduction to the world which permanently impacts you. Without a doubt my tendency for respect and the acceptance of differences comes from there. It’s a gift I want to share.

TdF: Fériel, you invest a lot of time and money to promote your ideas about peace, tolerance and dialogue between people, what motivates the committed woman you have become on a daily basis?

I always was her, it runs in my veins and without even knowing! In Arabic Fériel, and I only discovered this recently, means Norma/norms or justice! I can say that this comes naturally to me, historically Tunisian women are achievers and fighters: Elyssa Didon Reine de Carthage, Kahena and many more… social determinism, personality, history, unusual journeys, wanting to reject the established order when it is unjust. I think I am a rebel by nature… criminology, diplomacy, modelling, organising people, I have used all those arms to defend the voices of the oppressed, and this ethic is so precious in my view! But I guess, in any case I am consensual by nature, I am also full of contrasts, with all the trials and with time I learned to become more moderate! I am a secular humanist, a universalist, it’s in my genes.

TdF : The world of fashion is something you know about, what are some hidden resources?

I toyed with it without embracing it totally, it’s so paradoxical to conceptualise it and to then work in a profession that is more about appearances and less about being. But even so, I started it in Canada when I was very young, then I abandoned it although promised a career, after being spotted by Richard Desmarais, a great fashion photographer in Ottawa, then the big Montreal agency Giovanni categorised me as being too typically Eurasian. From there it was just a little step to Milan and the rest of the world. But I did my studies in criminology, my father was the ambassador to Tunisia in Ottawa and I was afraid to harm his career. I had hidden my artistic life from him, and one day he came across my book with sassy photos for the brand Esprit. At the time I was getting test shots and that constituted a change of course and an end to my young career, but without regrets, I think I made the right choice. I continued my career much later on in my thirties, coincidentally to grimace at anorexic teens and to show them that women in their thirties are resourceful too!!! And I did some of the biggest magazines in the Arab world: it was a challenge, nothing more, I never capitalized on it.

Today, I am passionate about fashion I am a consultant and expert in the area, having organised quite a few events about the African continent. But I function on impulse, not business, this makes me an eternal swath and your question makes me laugh, I am rich in initiatives and not in my bank accounts.

TdF: What is left to do for Arab women?

What is left to do for all women, from the North and South, I have this double culture and I am proud of it, so the struggle is double, the struggle is the same that introduces socio-historical conditions; we are all in the same struggle, parity, equality, recognition, ethics. We want less injustice, more representation of our just value. And to achieve that we need solidarity and think more about what unites us than what makes us different; culture, religion, social conditions, all those things are just details if we look at each other closely. We have the same hopes for our planet and our children. Let’s take each other’s hands, when one of us is hit and falls, let’s help to lift her up. Let’s be proud of our role models, because it’s them who will open the way. Let’s take this path with serenity, confidence and dignity.