Gisèle Halimi, feminism in the courtroom4 reading minutes

She didn't mince her words. Lawyer, member of parliament and writer, Gisèle Halimi held positions that required a voice. Yet it was her lawyer's robe that gave her the greatest impact. A look back at a career that should inspire many others.

When the young trainee was called to the Tunis bar in 1949, and then to the Paris bar in 1956, the legal order was not the one we know today. Women's rights were in their infancy. In Switzerland, women's right to vote was still only a vague dream, and French women were not allowed to work without their husband's consent until 1965. Even as a child, Halimi felt constrained by her status as a woman. Born into a poor Tunisian family, she realized that her destiny lay elsewhere, in the courts.

The lawyer gets a rap