Gladys Adda (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Scialom ; 1921 - 1995) was a

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

n communist and activist for independence and women's rights.

Life

Adda was born in

Gabès Gabès (, ; ), also spelled Cabès, Cabes, and Kabes, is the capital of the Gabès Governorate in Tunisia. Situated on the coast of the Gulf of Gabès, the city has a population of 167,863, making it the 6th largest city in Tunisia. Located 327 ...

on 2 June 1921 into a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family.Tunisian Women Yesterday and Today
Women of Tunisia, Weebly.com, Retrieved 26 March 2016 Unusually she was educated first with girls and then coeducationally. Despite attending primary school classes with a mix of Muslim, Jewish, and European girls, all of her teachers were French or European; the experience of undisguised racism from European teachers awakened Adda's awareness of European colonialism. Her Jewish community suffered some racism from antisemitic fascists, but the community was protected by the Muslim majority. Aged fifteen she was married to a man seven years her senior and she remained married to him for seven years until she divorced him, together, they had one son, Norbert Saâda. At the time Tunisia was part of the French Empire except during the Second World War when it was occupied by Nazi Germany. Adda engaged in political activism by covertly distributing anti-Nazi and anti-colonial leaflets against the German occupying forces in Vichy Tunisia. In 1944 she met and married her second husband,

Georges Adda Georges Adda () (September 22, 1916 in Tunis – September 28, 2008 in Tunis), was a Tunisian politician and trade unionist, and a former leader of the Tunisian Communist Party. Biography Adda was a respected figure of the Tunisian left opp ...

, and they had twins. Their son

Serge Adda Serge Adda (19 September 1948 in Tunis – 6 November 2004 in Paris) was the president of the French television station TV5. Life Adda was born in 1948 to a Tunisian-Jewish family, the son of Gladys Adda and Georges Adda. His parents were b ...

became a successful French businessperson. The same year she, Neila Haddad and Gilda khiari were co-founders of the Union of the Women of Tunisia (UFT). This was an organisation associated with the local communist party and it was led by Nabiha Ben Miled who was a Muslim. She became involved with organising free clinics for women and alternative schooling for children and adults. At the time access to education at colonial schools was being denied as a result of the demands for Tunisian independence. The Addas were seen as a risk and Georges was imprisoned in the 1950s. She and the UFT were involved in petitioning the French authorities on behalf of condemned Tunisian prisoners. Tunisia achieved independence in 1956 and unlike many she and her husband decided to stay in Tunisia, She and the UFT did not disband and they extended their support to activists in Algeria who were still trying to achieve independence from France. Adda and her friend, became involved in the early distribution of Tunisian newspapers and as a result she gave lectures in Tunis. Her widower Georges died in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adda, Gladys 1921 births 1995 deaths Anti-fascism in the Arab world Jewish anti-fascists Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust Jewish socialists People from Gabès Tunisian independence activists Tunisian women's rights activists Tunisian communists Tunisian feminists Tunisian human rights activists Tunisian Jews Tunisian women activists Mizrahi feminists Tunisian socialist feminists 20th-century Tunisian women 20th-century Tunisian people Female anti-fascists