Kenza Fourati

Biography

Kenza Fourati (Arabic: كنزة الفراتي) is a Tunisian-French model.

== Early life and education == Fourati was born in Lille, northern France, on 13 May 1987. She moved to Tunisia with her family when she was two months old, growing up in the coastal town of La Marsa. Fourati's mother, Dora Bouchoucha, is a film producer, and her father, Kamel Fourati, is a radiologist. Her paternal grandfather, Mohamed Fourati, was a cardiologist and a pioneer of heart transplant surgery in Tunisia. Her paternal grandmother, Michèle Roly, is French and a native of Lille. Fourati has a younger sister, Maleke, who completed a PhD in Development Economics at the UNSW Business School, in Australia. Fourati attended a French high school in Tunisia and began modelling after graduation. Shortly thereafter, she moved to Paris, to study at the Paris-Sorbonne University. Fourati graduated with a Bachelor in Literature and Fine Arts in 2008. She then moved to London to study filmmaking at Kingston University, London where she continued modelling Fourati graduated with a master's degree in Film/Cinema/Video Studies in 2010. Fourati has said that she has wanted to become a director since she was young. She has been studying acting at the New York Film Academy since 2011. Fourati speaks Arabic, French, English and "a little bit of Italian". She has dual French and Tunisian citizenship.

== Career == In 2002, Fourati finished in third place in the Elite Model Look competition at the age of 15 and signed with Elite Model Management. She has appeared in numerous international magazines, such as Vogue Paris, Elle, Marie Claire, L'Officiel Voyage, Grazia, and GQ. Fourati has walked the runway for major fashion houses, including Armani, Dior, Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier, Céline, Gianfranco Ferré, Stella McCartney, Tommy Hilfiger, Valentino and Vivienne Westwood. In 2005, she appeared in the French film Frankie alongside Diane Kruger. In October 2010, with Tunisian actor Dhaffer L'Abidine, Fourati co-hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the Carthage Film Festival. In recent years, she has been involved in advocacy with the Model Mafia and Model Alliance. In November 2013, Fourati launched her own women's fashion line in Tunis, Tunisia. Her clothing line included a range of printed T-shirts; long, sheer dresses; and oversized, long-sleeved tops. The fashion line was designed in New York by Fourati who was assisted by a pattern-maker; and manufactured in her home country of Tunisia. The By Kenz blog is no longer available and the Facebook Fanpage has not been updated since March, 2014. She has since launched a shoe company, Osay, with Simone Carrica.

=== Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, 2011 === Fourati appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2011. In an interview with Global Grind, Fourati said,

"I grew up in a Muslim culture, but I can still be a swimsuit model too! Why should the two be exclusive? It is not…I am very supported back home." Following the Tunisian Revolution, Fourati became an advocate for artistic expression in Tunisia:

"We are at a point now in Tunisia where we are free. We should be able to portray art like this if we want to, as the extremists are allowed to express themselves, too. That is a debate that we want to create, but it must be a peaceful one." As the first Arab Muslim model to be featured in Sports Illustrated, she raised debates in Tunisian society and abroad about what it means to be Muslim and about variety within the religion.

=== Tunivisions cover, August 2011 === In August 2011, during the Muslim month of Ramadhan, Fourati appeared in a bikini and body paint on the cover of Tunivisions, which created controversy. In a 2012 interview, Fourati was critical of the magazine, saying:

"Last year I shot a cover for a magazine wearing a bikini and my body was covered by a Victor Hugo poem. I loved the idea and the poem preaching love and tolerance, but the magazine edited it in an aggressively provocative way and it delivered the wrong message. So yes, that would be the only thing I would do differently. I was too naive back then."