32 Facts About Abdeljelil Zaouche

Abdeljelil Zaouche was a Tunisian politician, reformer, and campaigner in the Tunisian independence movement.

Abdeljelil Zaouche was born in his family's mansion in La Marsa to an Italian mother.

Abdeljelil Zaouche graduated in law and returned to Tunis in 1900, where he involved himself in public affairs.

Abdeljelil Zaouche devoted much of his work to advancing professional qualifications, management standards, creativity and competitiveness.

In 1908, Abdeljelil Zaouche took part in the first mixed session of the Tunisian Consultative Conference and chose to be a rapporteur and member of the Finance Commission of the Tunisian section of this body.

From its first session, Abdeljelil Zaouche demanded the suppression of the mejba, which accounted for a sixth of the government's income and was used to pay a number of officials.

Abdeljelil Zaouche used this as an opportunity to renew his attacks on French capital, arguing that the infrastructure paid for by ordinary Tunisians would bring them little benefit.

Abdeljelil Zaouche sought to preserve the integrity and distinctiveness of Tunisian institutions by emphasising the importance of appointing individuals of competence, probity and independence.

Abdeljelil Zaouche was a co-founder of the College Sadiki alumni association and of the Cercle tunisien, and President of the Khaldounia.

Abdeljelil Zaouche was a shareholder and board member of a number of newspapers, including La Depeche tunisienne, Le Progres, La Poste tunisienne, L'Autonome and, in Paris, of Le Temps.

Abdeljelil Zaouche edited a number of articles for the socialist daily Le Liberal.

Abdeljelil Zaouche was one of the founders of the nationalist Young Tunisian movement, and had links with the Young Turks, with reforming Egyptian nationalists such as Muhammad Abduh and Mustafa Kamil Pasha, as well as with supporters of panarabism like Pierre Loti and Charles Geniaux.

Abdeljelil Zaouche argued for access for Tunisians to modern education institutions both in Tunisia and in France.

Abdeljelil Zaouche was a member of the Commission on the Modernisation of Teaching at the University of Ez-Zitouna after the student strike of 1910, as well as on the mixed Commission for the Reform of Sadiki College.

Abdeljelil Zaouche denounced the discrimination faced by Tunisian students who wished to study at the Lycee Carnot de Tunis, which was the only institution giving access to modern university studies.

Abdeljelil Zaouche advocated measures to make credit more easily available to small farmers and to build up a resilient social infrastructure of cooperatives.

Abdeljelil Zaouche argued forcefully for education and training to allow local businesses to reskill, and for access to credit on modest terms to allow them to retool and explore new markets.

Abdeljelil Zaouche spoke in favour of tariff protection for local markets and export incentives for Tunisian manufacturers to export into French Algeria.

Abdeljelil Zaouche argued for comprehensive legislation to protect workers, providing for equality in access to positions, salaries and taxation; for the creation of professional bodies and the establishment of a self-regulating industrial and commercial sector.

Abdeljelil Zaouche foresaw new cooperatives, new municipal institutions and new, modern technical education as the keys to future success.

Abdeljelil Zaouche was instrumental in getting the small shopkeepers to form a cooperative to buy goods in bulk at a discount.

Abdeljelil Zaouche created the Es-Saadia cooperative, with more than 800 balgha-makers in Tunis and more than 100 in Kairouan, purchasing raw materials and supporting training and the well-being of its members.

The Council withdrew the proposal, and Abdeljelil Zaouche went to the cemetery in person to try and prevent violence, but such was the anger and tension that several days of riots across the city, in which several people lost their lives.

Victor de Carnieres, leader of the French colonists and owner of the newspaper Colon francais, used the edition of 26 November 1911 to accuse Abdeljelil Zaouche of being the main instigator of the disturbances.

Nevertheless, the court simply dismissed the case on the grounds that anything damaging Carnieres had said about Abdeljelil Zaouche was only of secondary importance, and that his primary aim had been to defend French interests.

The court ruled that Abdeljelil Zaouche should pay the costs of the action, which tended to support the view among colonists that the accusations were well-founded.

Abdeljelil Zaouche pursued the matter at the Court of Appeal in Algiers, where Carnieres' standing in the settler community in Tunis counted for less.

From April 1917, Abdeljelil Zaouche served for 17 years as caid of Sousse, but did not abandon the cause of the national movement.

Abdeljelil Zaouche published many reports on education and agriculture, and created special support funds for the farmers of the Sahel and encouraged the planting of olive trees.

Abdeljelil Zaouche resigned from this position in protest, together with all the other ministers in the cabinet of Hedi Lakhoua at the request of the Bey.

Founder of the co-operative movement, reformer, lawyer, editor, journalist, businessman and minister, Abdeljelil Zaouche was one of the most outspoken Young Tunisians when it came to criticising traditional religion.

Abdeljelil Zaouche was somewhat isolated from the Sadikian group among the Young Tunisians because he spent his time in mainstream French institutions.