Simone Veil

I've decided to talk about a Frenchwoman, a courageous, stubborn woman who should be a role model for everyone: I speak about Simone Veil.

Simone Jacob was born on July 13th, 1927, in Nice. She's the last of a four-child family. Her father was an architect and her mother studied chemistry before devoting herself to her family. Simone has considered her mother as a model since she was born.

During the second world war, her family was considered as Jewish. They had to hide themselves. In spite of the danger, Simone Jacob took her "baccalaureate" in 1944. Unfortunately not much time after she passed her test, when she was 17, her family was sent to Auschwitz. She spent thirteen months in this concentration camp; and she was the only survivor with her sister. They never saw their family after this horrible period. I think she's brave and courageous for having overcome these hardships while she was only 17.

Furthermore, even if we could expect she would be weakened, at the end of war, she started law and political studies. In the law university she met Antoine Veil, they got married in 1946 and had three sons. She made a brilliant career in judiciary.

She played an important political role. When Valery Giscard D’Estaing came to power, she became the first state Minister of Health for five years. She became the most popular political woman in France. She proposed a lot of good plans to the government, like the first law against tobacco, or the very well known law for contraception. Thanks to her, nowadays contraception and abortion are allowed. But when she wrote this law with the help of women’s rights, the other politicians didn’t share her opinion. Nevertheless she persevered and finally won. Her determination allowed women’s lives to improve, and equality between the two sexes. This period of her life shows us that she’s an exceptional woman who did many good things.

In 1979 she was chosen to represent UDF for the European election; and became the first woman president of the European Parliament. It has changed some mentalities which were against women in politics. Since 1979 she had a brilliant political career; she takes part in the Constitutional Council. Nowadays she is involved in lots of associations which take care of social matters, health and cities. She is also president of the foundation for the Shoah’s memory.

In a nutshell, Simone Veil is and will stay a great woman, who showed during her entire life a lot of bravery, wisdom, generosity, strength; that’s why she’s my role model and she should be a model for everyone.