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by Mounira Chaieb (Author)
This is a book of anecdotes - a product of my reflections on both my personal and professional life as a young Tunisian female journalist, coming to work for the 'largest broadcaster in the world' and live in the big city, that is London all by myself. The book traces the Tunisia I grew up in in the sixties - few years after it gained its independence from France, where my parents and I belonged to very different worlds. I come from a traditional family and society where a girl - no matter how educated - only leaves her parents' house to her husband's. So, for my family to allow me that, was something totally unheard of. The book highlights some of the most impressionable experiences I had while working in the Bush House offices in my home department; on secondment to other departments or on work trips abroad for the BBC and other places. At some point and for many years, I was the only Tunisian in the whole organisation. This book also traces what I make of the changes that Tunisia has been through over the years, especially since 2011 and the beginning of what's referred to as 'The Arab Spring' that started there and spread like wildfire to other countries in the region. London is also the place where I met my late husband, the Pan-Africanist Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem. We met by chance three times in three different places before we could speak and the rest as they say is history! I was probably the first Tunisian girl to marry a Nigerian. This book tackles the many challenges our union faced, the issue of identity for our two mixed-race daughters - something very rare back home - and for myself as a Tunisian - British or British-Tunisian, having spent longer in the UK than I did in Tunisia.
