Monia Zgarni is a visiting fellow at Women in International Security (WIIS). Zgarni is from Bizerte, Tunisia and is currently completing a PhD on women’s rights in transitional settings. She works for the Tunisian Association for Political Studies (ATEP) where she conducts research, collecting and analyzing data related to the Tunisian National Dialogue. Funded by the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Tunisian National Dialogue is a project which studies the process of the national dialogue and provides an overview of the varying perspectives between national political parties and civil society organizations. Prior to working for ATEP, Zgarni worked as a paralegal focusing on intellectual property. She holds both a Bachelor of Arts in Law and a Master of Laws in Common Law from Carthage University.
Monia Zgarni is a 2015 Spring participant of the Legacy International Professional Fellows Program (PFP). The PFP links community leaders in an exchange program designed to promote capacity-building and professional development with the aim of supporting civil society development in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Zgarni is interested in women empowerment and peacebuilding, and will present a Tunisian women’s leadership project as part of her training with the PFP. As a visiting fellow with WIIS, she will develop a proposal related to the increasing awareness of young Tunisian women, focusing on the rights recognized and guaranteed under the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325. Zgarni will also build expertise on issues related to gender equality as they relate to peace and security.