The wife of Tunisia’s late president, Beji Caid Essebsi has been reported dead. According to reports, she died as Tunisians were voting to elect her husband’s successor. The elections are taking place less than two months after the death of the country’s president.
The news was shared by her son, Hafedh Caïd Essebsi on Facebook. But no further details accompanied the announcement.
“My mother Chadlia, widow of Béji Caïd Essebsi, is dead, God bless her,” their son Hafedh Caïd Essebsi said on Facebook.
The former first lady, Chadlia Farhat Essebsi, died at the age of 83.
Beji Caid Essebsi died on 25 July 2019 at the age of 92. Beji Caid Essebsi was the first democratically elected president by universal suffrage in Tunisia.
Mrs. Chadlia Farhat Essebsi was very elegant and discreet. She rarely appeared in public, unlike the first ladies of post-independence Tunisia, Wassila Bourguiba, and Leïla Ben Ali.
“We tell each other everything, and he always asks me for my opinion;” she said in an interview with Leaders magazine in November 2014.
“This time, I felt that he was so eager to save Tunisia, and I couldn’t stop him. You have to make sacrifices when it comes to the country you live in. Since then, I have realized the extent of the necessary security measures, but we are trying to keep the same pace of life,” she added.
The couple had two daughters and two sons, including Hafedh Caïd Essebsi.
The sons have retained control of the party created by their father, Nidaa Tounes, at the cost of struggles by people who decimated the formation.
May her soul rest in peace, amen.
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