Background
Bouchamaoui was born into a wealthy business family. Her father took over part of the firm and made it into Hédi Bouchamaoui & Sons which specialized in oil, textile and other industry.
Bouchamaoui was born into a wealthy business family. Her father took over part of the firm and made it into Hédi Bouchamaoui & Sons which specialized in oil, textile and other industry.
The French news magazine Jeune Afrique has identified her as one of the Top 25 Business Women in Africa. Her grandfather Ahmed started a civil engineering company. After having obtained a Diplôme d'études supérieures spécialisées degree in international trade and marketing, Wided worked for a period in her father"s firm before starting her own firm with about 200 employees, specializing in cotton.
Following the Tunisian revolution in 2011, she became leader of the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), an employers union.
In September 2013 she, as leader of the organization, co-formed the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, whose aim was to secure a transition to democracy. The group included Wided Bouchamaoui as President of UTICA, Houcine Abassi as the Secretary General of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), Abdessattar ben Moussa as the President of the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH), and Mohamed Fadhel Mahmoud as the president of the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.
The group was disestablished in December 2014 after the 2014 Tunisian parliamentary election took place in October. Along with other leaders of the Quartet, Houcine Abassi, Mohammed Fadhel Mafoudh and Abdessatar Ben Moussa, Bouchamaoui traveled to Oslo to collect the Nobel Prize on December 10, 2015.
Bouchamaoui emphasized the collaborative nature of the group"s activities, and the importance of encouraging people: "We are here to give hope to young people in Tunisia, that if we believe in our country, we can succeed." The committee"s decision has been described as "rewarding hope rather than a finished product".
