Moufida Bourguiba
مفيدة بورقيبة
First Lady of Tunisia
In office
25 July 1957 – 21 July 1961
PresidentHabib Bourguiba
Preceded byPosition created
(Lalla Jeneïna Beya as Queen consort of Tunisia)
Succeeded byWassila Bourguiba
Personal details
Born
Mathilde Lorrain

(1890-01-24)January 24, 1890
Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France
DiedNovember 15, 1976(1976-11-15) (aged 86)
Monastir, Tunisia
Spouses
  • Colonel le Fras
    ​
    (died 1918)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1927; div. 1961)​
ChildrenHabib Bourguiba, Jr.

Moufida Bourguiba née Mathilde Lorrain (Arabic: مفيدة بورقيبة; 24 January 1890 – 15 November 1976) was the first wife of the President of Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba, and the inaugural First Lady of Tunisia from 1957 to 1961.[1]

Biography

Moufida, Habib and Habib Jr. in 1956.
Habib and Moufida Bourguiba on a visit to the White House in 1961 with John and Jacqueline Kennedy.

Mathilde Lorrain was born in France in 1890 in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, Val-de-Marne. She married a French officer, Colonel le Fras who was killed at the very end of the First World War on 11 November 1918. She met Habib Bourguiba in 1925 whilst he was studying law at the University of Paris. Their only son, also Habib, was born in April 1927 and they married in August 1927.

After independence she converted to Islam and took the name "Moufida" on 25 October 1958. Her husband awarded her with a number of honours but she is claimed to have said that she only did things for him and his country.

The couple divorced in 1961. She died in Monastir in 1976. Her husband remarried Wassila Ben Ammar.

References

  1. ↑ Borsten, Joan (1985-06-16). "Arab World's Most Powerful Woman". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2018-10-21. Retrieved 2012-08-09.


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