Mezri Haddad

Mezri Haddad
Mezri Haddad in 2014
Born	(1961-07-02) 2 July 1961 (age 56) Le Kram, Tunisia
Nationality	Tunisian
Occupation	Journalist, diplomat
Known for	Tunisian ambassador to UNESCO (2009–11)

Mezri Haddad (born 2 July 1961 in Le Kram) is a Tunisian journalist, writer, philosopher and diplomat. Haddad was a doctor of moral and political philosophy at the Paris-Sorbonne University, and the first Muslim candidate to be qualified by the National Council of French universities as a lecturer in Catholic theology. He is the author of several essays that focus on politics and religion (Islam and Christianity).

He regularly contributes to the press in France (Le Figaro, Libération and Le Monde), Belgium (Le Soir) and Switzerland (Tribune de Genève) and has made several appearances on France 24, LCI, Public Sénat, France Ô and France 2. He was also, from 2007 to 2009, co-director of the Daedalos Institute of Geopolitics, a think tank based in Nicosia created at the initiative of the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In late 2009 he was appointed ambassador to UNESCO, a post he resigned in January 2011 before the fall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Mezri Haddad was born in Le Kram, in the northern suburbs of Tunis. His father came from Monastir. He spent his childhood and early adolescence in Le Kram in a middle-class family. His father Mohamed, a trade unionist and first-generation activist of the Neo Destour party, belonged to the resistance network in the Menzel Bourguiba region. He was a turner-fitter at the thermal power plant La Goulette. His mother, a native of Mateur, was a seamstress.