Excellency Nejib Hachana,

Dear Friends,

It is for me a great honor and pleasure to receive this wonderful award. I am deeply grateful to the members of the Ibn Khaldun Award Program Committee and I cannot tell you enough how much this award means to me. I also want to express special thanks to His Excellency Nejib Hachana for his warm welcome, to Mr. Ali Khemili for his kind support and his extraordinary sense of organization, to my friend Dr. Larry Michalak for his generous words about my work, and to all the people whose efforts have made tonight’s event possible. All of you have made this evening very special for me. I thank you for it.

In accepting this award, I have three hopes for the future.

1. MY FIRST HOPE HAS TO DO WITH TUNISIA AND WOMEN.

In my writing, I have focused on the Maghreb and especially on Tunisia. I have shown that there is great diversity in women’s position in the Islamic world. I believe that we need to dispel misconceptions about the Middle East and the Maghreb. In the last 3 to 4 years, images of ghost-like, passive and exploited women in burqa such as in Afghanistan have dominated the media in the US. We need to make clear that those images do not apply everywhere.
I have emphasized the exceptional accomplishments of Tunisia with respect to women’s rights and explained the reasons why this happened. As the West is increasingly interested in bringing about greater rights for women in the Islamic world, it is imperative that scholars and policy makers in the US and in the international community be aware of the Tunisian case. Tunisia is as much a reflection of what is happening in the Islamic world as is any other country in that world. The experience of Tunisia must be better known. I take heart in the fact that many young scholars in Tunisia are writing on the subject and one thing we might do is to establish more contacts between Tunisians and American universities though a variety of exchanges.

2. MY SECOND HOPE HAS TO DO WITH THE WORK OF IBN KHALDUN.

I have built on his ideas in my own writing and I see him as one of the most insightful analysts of the Maghrib. There is today a revival of his work. There is good reason for this. His concept of asabiyya is a brilliant contribution to social science. Asabiya is often translated as esprit de clan or spirit of solidarity or sometimes by kinship. Ibn Khaldun reminds us of how important community and solidarity are to the welfare of individuals and society. And this matters not only in the Maghreb but everywhere. Take American society for example. Its hallmark was historically a blend of individualism and rich community ties. Today there is a danger of the balance shifting towards increased individualism in America.

Think of how many individuals suffer from isolation and loneliness in the big cities of the Western world. In contrast, one is rarely alone in Tunisia where families and communities take care of their own. Ibn Khaldun reminds us of what we lose as individuals and as a society when we let go of community. His writings do two things: they show how central to Tunisian culture the sense of community and solidarity is and they tell us how important that sense should be to the rest of the world. So my second hope is that the work of Ibn Khaldun will receive increased attention and inform the thinking about the future of modern society.

3. MY THIRD HOPE HAS TO DO WITH THE TUNISIAN COMMUNITY IN AMERICA.

And here a personal note: When I came to Harvard for my Ph.D., my objective was to contribute to the public discourse in the international community. There were obstacles along the way. I am glad that I stayed the course despite the obstacles, that I had the opportunity to write and publish, and that my voice has reached diverse audiences.

It can be tough to make a life in a country other than one’s own, no matter how hospitable the new social environment might be. I suspect that all of us Tunisian Americans and Tunisians living in the US had to overcome something to make a life outside of our country. I don’t know what the something is, but I bet that each of us here tonight has a story to tell and that the story includes victory over some kind of obstacle. We need each other’s support. We all want to strengthen the sense of solidarity among us. We wish to see the Tunisian American Community flourish based on shared roots, shared experiences, and shared bonds to our home country.
So tonight I happen to receive the Ibn Khaldun Award, but in truth this award is for all of you here as well.

CONCLUSION

In brief, I feel fortunate to be a woman from Tunisia writing about Tunisian women in America. Once again, I want to tell you how humbled and honored I am to receive the award. As you know, May 27 is the birth date of Ibn Khadun. We are planning to make his birth date the “Tunisian Day in America”. I am thrilled to be here with you to start a tradition of many more events like this evening and I wish a glorious future to the Tunisian community in America.

Thank you.