Rachid Ghannouchi

Tunisian scholar and politician, and leading Islamic thinker, who has carried forward Malek Bennabi's intellectual legacy. This is best described in the study by Dr Azzam Tamimi, 'Rachid Ghannouchi, A Democrat within Islamism'

He was arrested on 20 April 2023 and currently remains in detention without access to lawyers and in poor health. There have been a wave of arrests under President  Kais Saied's  regime of political suppression. 

Ghannouchi had returned to Tunisia in 2011, after the Arab spring toppled an earlier dictator, Tunisia's dictator, Ben Ali. Though the Ennahda Party, Ghannouchi offered a vision of a moderate, modern and inclusive political movement.  When it won a resounding election victory, Rached Ghannouchi endorsed a secular election partner as President. He took no office for himself.

Rachid Ghannouchi was born outside El Hamma, in the Qabis province of southern Tunisia.

Compiler: M. Nauman Khan