Gisèle Halimi was born in La Goulette, Tunisia, and pleaded in Tunis before she pleaded in Paris. In 1960 she took up the defence of Djamila Boupacha, whom the French army had tortured, and brought the case into the public square with Simone de Beauvoir. The Bobigny trial of 1972 weighed on the passing of the Veil law; the Aix trial of 1978 had rape judged as a crime.
The story
Born Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb at La Goulette, in Tunisia, on 27 July 1927, she was called to the Tunis bar in 1948 and to the Paris bar in 1955.
The Algerian War made her name: in 1960 she defended Djamila Boupacha, a militant of the FLN, the Algerian independence movement, tortured by the French army, and took the case to public opinion with Simone de Beauvoir.
A signatory of the Manifesto of the 343 in 1971, in which women declared publicly that they had had an abortion, she defended at the Bobigny trial of 1972 a girl prosecuted for terminating a pregnancy: the trial weighed on the passing of the Veil law in 1975.
In 1978, before the assize court at Aix-en-Provence, she acted for two young Belgian women, Anne Tonglet and Aracelli Castellano, raped four years earlier in a creek near Marseilles, and won a public hearing: the 1980 law that at last defined rape came directly out of it.
French ambassador to UNESCO from 1985 to 1986, and the wife of Claude Faux — once Sartre's secretary — she died in Paris on 28 July 2020, the day after her ninety-third birthday. She rests in Division 49, chemin de la Cave, with Claude Faux (1930-2017) and their son Emmanuel (1964-2022).
The grave
An inscription that puts the profession before the titles: “Gisèle HALIMI, avocate, 1927 – 2020” — lawyer — followed by “Claude FAUX, écrivain, 1930-2017” — writer, her husband, once Jean-Paul Sartre's secretary. Their son Emmanuel Faux (1964-2022) rests with them. No Bobigny, no Boupacha, no law of 1980: a seven-letter word stands in for a biography.
On site, do not miss
The inscription names the professions before anything else: “Gisèle HALIMI, avocate, 1927-2020” and “Claude FAUX, écrivain, 1930-2017” — lawyer, writer. Their son Emmanuel joined them in 2022.
Visitors' questions
Where is Gisèle Halimi's grave?
In Division 49, chemin de la Cave, first row. The inscription states her profession: “Gisèle HALIMI, avocate, 1927-2020”, followed by “Claude FAUX, écrivain, 1930-2017”. The Division is also that of Hubertine Auclert and Anna Karina.
Chantal AkermanWhat was the Bobigny trial?
The 1972 trial in which Gisèle Halimi defended a girl prosecuted for a backstreet abortion. She turned it into a public platform against the law of 1920, and the outcry weighed on the passing of the Veil Act in 1975.
Hubertine AuclertWho was Djamila Boupacha?
A militant of the Algerian FLN, tortured by the French army, whom Gisèle Halimi defended in 1960 by taking the case to public opinion with Simone de Beauvoir. That case made her reputation as a political lawyer.
Henri CurielWhich law came out of the Aix trial of 1978?
The rape law of 1980. Pleading the Lacoste and Pontorson case before the assize court of Aix-en-Provence, Gisèle Halimi had rape tried as a crime and won a law that at last defined it as one.
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