Ezzedine Hazgui was born in Hazg, 40 km from Sfax. He grew up in several cities (among which Sousse, Gafsa, and Tunis), due to the successive assignments of his father who was a judge. After his parents’ divorce he also lived with his grandparents and his uncle and kept strong relations with many family members. He joined the leftist political movement “Perspective” or “El Amal Ettounsi” (“The Tunisian worker”, also the name of the organization’s newspaper) which operated clandestinely in the context of the dictatorship led by Habib Bourguiba. He was arrested for his political activities and was sent to the Borj Erroumi prison from 1973 to 1979. While in prison he kept writing anecdotes and memories that were smuggled out of jail, and became part of his autobiographical novel “My Mother’s Glasses” which was published in 2018. In 1989, during the first presidential election two years after Ben Ali came to power, Ezzedine Hazgui ran as a political opponent against him. Although his candidacy  was not allowed,  his attempt was widely publicized. He supported the Tunisian revolution in 2010-2011 and remains involved in the public sphere. Recently he was spokesperson for the movement called “Citizens Against Coup” and participated in a hunger strike to protest President Kais Saied’s move to seize power. He married Bahia Zouari and is the father to Dalila Msaddek and Jawhar Ben Mbarek, who are both public figures in Tunisia.