Habib Bourguiba

Who is Habib Bourguiba?

Habib Bourguiba was born in Monastir in 1903 and studied law and political science in Paris before returning to Tunisia to practice law and enter nationalist politics. In 1934 he founded the Neo Destour party, which became the driving force behind the Tunisian independence movement against French colonial rule. Repeatedly arrested and imprisoned by French authorities over more than two decades of activism, he led the negotiations that secured Tunisian independence in March 1956. He became Tunisia's first prime minister and, after the abolition of the monarchy in 1957, its first president, a position he held until he was removed in a bloodless medical coup by Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 1987. As president, Bourguiba pursued an ambitious program of secular modernization, most notably the 1956 Code of Personal Status, which abolished polygamy, introduced judicial divorce, and gave Tunisian women rights unmatched elsewhere in the Arab world at the time. He also prioritized universal education and public health. He died in Monastir in 2000 and is widely remembered as the father of modern Tunisia.

Sources: Kenneth Perkins, A History of Modern Tunisia (Cambridge University Press, 2004) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Habib Bourguiba" · Tunisian Code of Personal Status (1956), Official Gazette of Tunisia