Habib Bourguiba on 8 April, in the afternoon, in his mausoleum. After a short ceremony at the Hanafi Mosque of Bourguiba, his body was transported on a gun carriage, coated with the national flag and carried by a military vehicle framed by detachments of the Tunisian army. Among the foreign guests were French President Jacques Chirac, Algerian Bouteflika, Palestinian Yasser Arafat and Egyptian Hosni Mubarak. After the burial, President Ben Ali pronounced a eulogy in which he paid a tribute to the "Loyal and devoted fight" of Bourguiba for Tunisia. The funeral conditions were, however, submitted to the criticism of international media
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