Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer to Visit Tunisia

Melanne Verveer, U.S. ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues

Melanne Verveer, US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, will travel to Tunisia on April 5th to attend the second convening of the Working Group on Women’s Empowerment.

The event is part of the US State Department’s Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society. Verveer will meet with women leaders from Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Jordan, and Morocco.

According to the State Department, she will visit both Casablanca and Rabat in Morocco as well as the Tunisian capital of Tunis between March 31st and April 6th. Throughout the trip, Verveer will meet with government officials, civil society organizations, and business leaders to discuss ways to advance women’s political and economic representation in society.

Jason Khile, press attaché at the U.S. embassy in Tunisia, said that she will meet with leading civil society figures from North Africa and the Levant on April 5th at the Residence Gammarth hotel in Tunis.

The event seeks to discuss the advancement of women’s empowerment in Tunisia’s political transition with sessions focusing on political, socio-economic, and legal empowerment for women.

Verveer has served as the US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues since 2009. She is the former Chief of Staff to First Lady of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Her visit to Morocco comes at critical moment in the country’s struggle for women’s rights. Protests demanding the repeal of a law on sexual violence have occurred in major cites such as Rabat.  Hundreds of women’s rights activists have demonstrated outside of the Morocco’s parliament demanding the repeal of Morocco’s penal code. A rapist can avoid prosecution by marrying his victim in the case that she is a minor.

The recent wave of protests have largely represented a reaction to the death of 16-year-old Amina Filali, who was driven to commit suicide after her family forced her to marry her rapist.