Habib Bourguiba of Dar Slim, held clandestinely in Tunis in October 1948, he was now assisted by three vice-presidents whose goal was to limit the power of the president: Hedi Chaker in Tunis, Youssef Rouissi in Damascus and Habib Thameur in Cairo. Having one to the Egyptian capital to support the national struggle abroad, Bourguiba found himself, four years later, weakened politically and marginalized among the Maghrebi Committee in Cairo, exiled and isolated from Tunisia. Aware of the importance of the struggle inside the country, he decided to regain Tunis on 8 September 1949. When he returned to Tunisia, Bourguiba decided to
Early life of Habib Bourguiba were not a young student, I was satisfied with this date of birth and kept it". One of his ministers, Mahmoud El Materi, confirmed this hypothesis in his memoirs. Being the son of Ali Bourguiba and Fattouma Khefacha, who was 40 when he was born, Bourguiba stated that his mother was ashamed to conceive a child at that late age, her last pregnancy being seven years old at the time. Meanwhile, his father wondered whether he could raise his son at this old age. Habib Bourguiba later described his birth in these words: "When she conceived me, it was for