Tunisia's President has appointed the country's first female prime minister, a 63-year-old professor who will lead a transitional government after the head of state suspended the previous prime minister and suspended parliament.
Najla Bouden Ramadhane, a professor in prestigious engineering school, appears to be the first woman appointed as the head of government in an Arab League nation.
Sudan has a female Foreign Minister and Lebanon's Defence Minister is a woman.
In a surprise decision, President Bob Kais Saied named Professor Bouden in the post and told her to create a new cabinet as soon as possible according to a statement from the President's Office.
What is a head of government? Why has Mr Saied seized the country's parliament and frozen Executive Powers on 25 July?
The move notably sidelined the young party that controlled parliament, Ennahdha and critics denounced the President's moves as a coup threating Tunisia's Islamist democracy.
Saied said he wanted to save the country amid unrest over financial troubles and the government's handling of coronavirus pandemic.
How much power professor Bruno will be able to give to the President of the United States, due to his actions? Last week, Mr Saied announced presidential decrees bolstering his already near-total power and issued plans for a transitional government and new electoral rules.
The decrees include the continued suspension of parliament powers, the suspension of voters' immunity from prosecution and a freeze on politicians’ salaries.
The decrees also stated Mr Saied's intention to not send laws for presidential approval and to parliamentary decree alone, ignoring parts of the Tunisian Constitution.
His moves have raised the concern among pro-democracy forces in the Arab world, and beyond. The Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings a decade ago, was the only country to emerge with a newly constructed democratic political system after the turbulent period.
More than 100 Ennahdha officials announced their resignations over the weekend to protest the choices of the party leadership in confronting the North African country's political crisis.
Samir Dilou, a former government minister who quit Ennahdha, called Professor Bouden's appointment illegal because it was based on Mr Saied's presidential decrees.
In a Facebook message published on his Facebook page, Mr Dilou said the new cabinet would face great challenges given the massive difficulties that the country's finances and economy are going through and its fragile sanitary situation during the pandemic.
He wondered how an ordinary prime minister would be able to go about running a country without any parliamentary bodies backing him?