Moufida Bourguiba Moufida Bourguiba Moufida Bourguiba (مفيدة بورقيبة), (born Mathilde Lorrain) (24 January 1890 in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés France – 15 November 1976 in Monastir). She was the first wife of the President of Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba, and the First Lady of Tunisia from 1957 to 1961. She died on 15 November 1976 at the age of 86. 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
Habib Bourguiba Bourguiba was transferred on board of a destroyer, into the fort of Saint-Nicolas in Marseille on 26 May 1940. There he shared his cell with Hédi Nouira. Convinced that the war would end with the victory of the Allies, he wrote a letter to Habib Thameur, on 10 August 1942, to define his positions: He was transferred to Lyon and imprisoned in Montluc prison on 18 November 1942 then in Fort de Vancia until Klaus Barbie decided to free him and take him to Chalon-sur-Saône. He was greatly welcomed in Rome, alongside Ben Youssef and Ben Slimane, in January 1943,