Tunisia issues new Banknotes featuring its first female Doctor

Tunisian apex bank unveiled new banknotes honouring a female history maker in the country’s medical history.

The bank disclosed that the new 10 Tunisian dinar note would feature female doctor Tewhida ben Sheikh. The first woman to make it onto the country’s currency. 

Announcing the circulation of the banknote as a legal tender, Abdelaziz bin Saeed, Director of the Public Treasury Tunisia’s Apex bank said that this decision had been made a year ago to “honour Tunisian women”.

The new notes went into circulation on Friday, March 27, 2020, as legal tender and will circulate alongside the country’s other currency.

Ben Sheikh, born in 1909 passed on a decade ago, in 2010. She was the first Muslim woman to become a physician in North Africa in the 20th century. She is particularly renowned for her work in women’s health and specialisation in gynaecology.

A 2017 study estimated only 15 percent of the world’s banknotes feature women.

Globally, only 18 countries have women on their currencies, some of them include the United Kingdom, Syria, Sweden, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico amongst others.