Habib Bourguiba

Born poor in Monastir in 1903, Bourguiba studied law in Paris and returned to Tunis in the early 1930s, co-founding the Neo Destour party in 1934 and spending years in French prisons and exile for his role in the independence movement. After World War II he sought Arab League backing from Cairo, then led negotiations and armed resistance until France granted internal autonomy in 1954. He returned to Tunis in June 1955, crushed a conservative rival in a brief civil war, and became prime minister when independence came in 1956. A year later he abolished the monarchy and declared a republic with himself as president. His rule brought mass education, economic development, gender equality laws, and the Code of Personal Status - a sweeping modernization program - but also a one-party state, a cult of personality, and a 1975 declaration of lifetime presidency. Declining health and internal rivalries ended it: his prime minister, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, removed him on 7 November 1987 and placed him under house arrest in Monastir, where he died in 2000.