Habib Bourguiba August 1956, Bourguiba enacted the Code of Personal Status, a major legislation that reorganized families. Therefore, repudiation was replaced with divorce while woman had to consent to their marriages, suppression paternal agreement. In addition, Polygyny was prohibited and equality between fathers and mothers but also between children was part of the law. Bourguiba also reformed the judicial system, suppressing religious courts and initiating governmental ones. On the second anniversary of his return to Tunisia, on 1 June 1957, Bourguiba wanted to proclaim a Republic system, but the French-Tunisian relation crisis because of the suspension of the financial aid from France,
Habib Bourguiba was a Women's rights defender, Bourguiba based this law on his ideas, emancipating women, despite the then-conservative public opinion. Bourguiba understood the opposition he would face but decided to act, before even building the Republic. Nevertheless, he was supported by some religious personalities, such as Mohamed Fadhel Ben Achour, who defended Bourguiba's reform, stating that the CPS are possible interpretations of Islam. However, others did not share these views and said that the CPS was violating Islamic norms. The Personal Status Code would, then, constitute the fundamental legacy of Habib Bourguiba, to the point of becoming a sort of consensus