Woman who met Macron by chance invited on Tunisia trip
A Franco-Tunisian woman was pleasantly surprised to be invited to join President Emmanuel Macron on his official visit to Tunisia this week, after meeting him for the first time in Clermont-Ferrand just one week earlier.
Maha Issaoui, a Franco-Tunisian doctoral student living in Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme), met Macron for the first time last week, as he left a late conference on social mobility, during a scheduled visit, explains news source France Info.
The two shook hands and, upon learning that the student had connections with Tunisia, Macron explained that “we are going there next week” and asked “if she would like to come with us”. After she replied “with pleasure”, the President called his associate over to begin making plans.
One week later, Issaoui found herself on a private plane with Macron and his entourage, and the subject of a tweet from the President’s official account, with the words “chance often does good things”.
Croisée dans les rues de Clermont-Ferrand, Maha intègre l'équipe le temps de ma visite d'État dans le pays où elle a grandi : la Tunisie. Le hasard fait bien les choses. pic.twitter.com/GnfLUzrOhP
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 31, 2018
The President visited the North African nation during an official visit on Wednesday 31 January and Thursday 1 February this week.
Issaoui described the journey as a “fairytale”, and, explaining why she had said yes immediately: “Well, of course I wasn’t going to say no!”
Issaoui was born in Tunisia, with reports suggesting that she was one of the first people to post photos and videos of the 2010 revolution on social media. Soon afterwards, she was offered a scholarship to study in Clermont-Ferrand.
“I have only been in France for six years but I am Franco-Tunisian,” she explained. “I was naturalised last year and I have two cultures now.”
The politically-engaged research student used the opportunity to make a strong statement about the state of her birth country, which, after the revolution, is now suffering from intense economic problems.
“I am proud that in Tunisia, we [now] have freedom of speech - I dreamed about that,” she explains. “But Tunisians say clearly to me: ‘Maha, people cannot eat freedom’. The revolution has still not been won.”
