Family
Ben Ali and his family are accused of corruption, which was a major contribution to the 2010–2011 Tunisian protests which led to the fall of his government. Many of Ben Ali's family members subsequently also fled the country. On 20 January 2011, Tunisian television reported that 33 members of Ben Ali's family had been arrested in the past week, as they tried to flee the country.
Leïla Ben Ali was the chair of the Basma Association, a group that promotes social integration and provides employment opportunities for the disabled. She was also the president of the Arab Women Organization, which works to empower women in Arab states. In July 2010, the first lady founded the “SAIDA” Association (named after her late mother) to improve care for cancer patients in Tunisia. She has three children: Nesrine, Halima and Mohamed Zine El Abidine. (Ben Ali has three daughters from his first marriage: Ghazwa, Dorsaf and Cyrine.) Leila Ben Ali allegedly took 1.5 tonnes of gold from the central bank when she and her family fled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. One of her nephews, Imed Trabelsi, was arrested during the 2010–2011 protests in Tunisia.
Read more about this topic: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Famous quotes containing the word family:
“A family in harmony will prosper in everything.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Unfortunately, life may sometimes seem unfair to middle children, some of whom feel like an afterthought to a brilliant older sibling and unable to captivate the family’s attention like the darling baby. Yet the middle position offers great training for the real world of lowered expectations, negotiation, and compromise. Middle children who often must break the mold set by an older sibling may thereby learn to challenge family values and seek their own identity.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)
“In the middle classes the gifted son of a family is always the poorest—usually a writer or artist with no sense for speculation—and in a family of peasants, where the average comfort is just over penury, the gifted son sinks also, and is soon a tramp on the roadside.”
—J.M. (John Millington)