Tunisian President Kais Saied Wednesday appointed Najla Bouden Romdhane as Prime Minister, tasking her with forming a new government as soon as possible.
Bouden is the first ever female to hold the position of prime minister in Tunisia's history, and the first female PM in the Arab world.
Born in 1958 in the central Kairouan Governorate, Bouden is a professor of higher education at the National School of Engineers in Tunis, specialising in geosciences.
She steps into the role two months after Saied took the unprecedented step to freeze parliament, sack the previous government and assume exclusive control over the country gripped by political deadlock and economic strain.
Earlier, the president announced that he will appoint a prime minister but said emergency measures, announced in July, would remain in place.
“These exceptional measures will continue, and a prime minister will be named but on the basis of transitional rulings responding to the will of the people,” he said in a televised speech from the city of Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of Tunisia’s 2011 revolution.
On July 25, the President sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, suspended parliament for 30 days and ordered a crackdown on 460 businessmen suspected of corruption as well as an investigation into the “illegal funding” of parties.
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