Habib Bourguiba - Social Reform

Social Reform

The Bourguiba government's reforms include female emancipation, public education, family planning, a modern, state-run healthcare system, a campaign to improve literacy, administrative, financial and economic organization, suppression of religious property endowments, known as Waqf, and building the country's infrastructure. Much credit for the reform belongs to his adviser, Cecil Hourani, who was selected by Bourguiba.

During the time Bourguiba was president, education was a high priority. Bourguiba also promoted women's rights as a way to gain Western support for his regime during the Cold War. Though these set important legal precedents by prohibiting polygamy, expanding women's access to divorce, and raising the age at which girls could marry to 17 years old – he simultaneously banned women's rights groups from organizing. The new Personal Status Code passed in August 1956 expanded women's rights, though it remains open to debate how much this transformed Tunisian society in practice. Notably, the Code also institutionalized the role of the father as head of the family.

Bourguiba was very critical of the veil, on various occasions referring to is as "that odious rag".

After independence, Tunisia's Jewish Community Council was abolished by the government and many Jewish areas and buildings were destroyed for "urban renewal".