Wassila Ben Ammar
| Wassila Bourguiba | |
|---|---|
Wassila Bourguiba in 1962
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| First Lady of Tunisia | |
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In office 12 April 1962 – 11 August 1986 |
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| President | Habib Bourguiba |
| Preceded by | Moufida Bourguiba |
| Succeeded by | Naïma Ben Ali |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 22, 1912 Béja, Tunisia |
| Died | June 22, 1999 (aged 87) La Marsa, Tunisia |
Wassila Ben Ammar (Tunisian Arabic: وسيلة بن عمار), (April 22, 1912 – June 22, 1999) was the second spouse of the former Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba and the First Lady of Tunisia from 1962 until 1986. She was called Majda (venerable).
Ben Ammar's father, lawyer Mhamed Ben Ammar, belonged to a relatively impoverished Tunisian bourgeois family previously composed of senior officials and large landowners. Her mother, Fatma Dellagi, also came from the Tunisian bourgeoisie.
Wassila met Bourguiba for the first time on 12 April 1943, when she came to congratulate him on his release after five years of detention. "It was love at first sight", wrote Habib Bourguiba in his autobiography Ma vie, mon oeuvre (French: "My Life, My Work"). Wassila at that time already had a daughter by a small landowner.
Through her budding relationship with Bourguiba, she had a considerable influence over the abolition of the monarchy of the Bey of Tunis and promoted the proclamation of a republic on 25 July 1957. After this, she strongly supported Ahmed Ben Salah, who was appointed on 29 July 1957 as Secretary of State for Public Health and Social Affairs, a minister-equivalent role.
Habib Bourguiba married Wassila on 12 April 1962, about a year after his divorce from Moufida Bourguiba on 21 July 1961. The son of Habib Bourguiba and Moufida, Habib Bourguiba, Jr., showed a certain animosity toward his stepmother. Since she was from a family of the traditional Tunisian bourgeoisie, which included influential and rich men, some of the ministers from Tunis saw this marriage as a way to detach Bourguiba from the ministers of the Tunisian Sahel from which Ben Salah originated. Indeed, her support for the latter did not last when he started gaining power.
Wassila gradually became very influential in the presidential palace affairs of Carthage (she was called the "Lady President") even though Bourguiba seemingly kept her away from political affairs. According to former minister Tahar Belkhodja, she was the "gateway to all the presidential ministers and their staff."
She showed momentary solidarity with the Prime Minister Hedi Nouira in her opposition to the proposed union between Tunisia and Libya in 1974, although overall they were hostile to each other according to Sadri Khiari.
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