ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the early history of Tunisia and the important milestones that feature individual women whose deeds of bravery and adventure were recounted either through legend or historical record. Tunisia is located in the northeastern portion of North Africa and is smaller than the countries that loom large next to it, specifically Algeria and Libya. Between 1574 and 1922, or until the advent of Mustafa Kamel Ataturk and the revolution in Turkey, Tunisia was part of the Ottoman Empire. According to the historian Amy Kallander, the women who found themselves members of the ruling elite family in Tunisia in the 18th and 19th centuries through marriage were able to create their own livelihoods within the confines of the palace household or harem, generally considered a patriarchal structure. The cultural boom arising from experiments in modernity in Turkey and Egypt in the mid- to late 19th and early 20th centuries spilled over into Tunisia and Algeria.
