Najla Bouden (), also known as Najla Bouden Romdhane (; born 29 June 1958), is a Tunisian geologist and university professor who is serving as the Prime Minister of Tunisia.
She took office on 11 October 2021, making her the first female prime minister both in Tunisia and the Arab world.
She previously served in the education ministry in 2011.
Early life and career
Bouden was born in 1958 in Kairouan.
She is an engineer by profession and a professor of higher education at the National Engineering School of Tunis at Tunis El Manar University, having specialized in geosciences.
She has a Ph.D. from the École des Mines de Paris in earthquake engineering.
Her work has focused on seismic hazards in Tunis.
Before her current position as Prime Minister, she held senior roles at the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, including as part of the $70 million World Bank-funded program "PromEssE" to reform and "modernize" university education in order to help alleviate widespread unemployment among Tunisian graduates, a major social issue in the country.
Appointment as Prime Minister
On 29 September 2021, amid the Tunisian political crisis, President Kais Saied asked Bouden to form and lead a government, the first time in the country's history that a woman reached the office of prime minister.
At their meeting at the presidential palace, which was broadcast by the president's office, Saied described the news as "an honor to Tunisia and Tunisian women".
She is expected to take over as prime minister with fewer executive powers than her predecessors, as the president has assumed full executive powers.
Samir Dilou, a former government minister and spokesperson, said that Bouden's nomination was illegal because it was done through Saied's presidential decrees.
Tunisian analyst  suggests that Saied's "trust that [Bouden] will be loyal to him was a factor encouraging his decision" as, he claims, was her distance from political parties, especially Tunisia's main opposition party, Ennahda.
She took office on 11 October 2021.
Honours
50px Officer of the National Order of Merit of Tunisia (2016)
Publications
Contribution à l'étude de la fragmentation des massifs rocheux à l'explosif ("Contribution to the study of the fragmentation of rock masses with explosives"), PhD thesis, (1987).
Innovative geotechnical engineering.
Proceedings of the International conference on geotechnical engineering [eds.], Sfax, Nouha editions, 2008
References
