president bourguiba said he was notjust a liberator of tunisia, but a liberator

i am one of the founders of the tunisian women's union and president bourguiba relied on us.male life to 16 teenagers. there are 13 such schools staffed by the union, a militant and powerful embodiment of opinion in the land. the teacher leaves them no doubts about their right. she tells them that they are not slaves any more. "you are like european women and have equal rights with men: this you must understand." this law protected girls. fathers were no longer able to force their daughters to marry against their will and president bourguiba encouraged us to make sure families were not stopping girls from getting an education. they are taught about contraception, abortion, and laws giving them equal rights. after three months here they return to their villages to spread the word, because it's here in the countryside that the modern tunisian woman has to win the fight for equality in territories that have remained for centuries the unassailable stronghold of tunisian men. we spoke to men more than we did to women, because we faced opposition from them. we spent a lot of time m

in 1957, president habib bourguiba said women should be able to vote, go to school, divorce and marryto contraception and he banned polygamy. saida el gueyed was part of the tunisia women's union. newsreel: the women who ten years ago had no rights and were contracted to marriage by their parents and covered their faces when they left the house, these tunisians are not doing at all badly. this is, one imagines, as emancipated as any girl can get. the swinging tunisian dollybirds represent one of the most remarkable social transformations of present times. the equal rights law was the biggest gain for tunisian women. president bourguiba said he was notjust a liberator of tunisia, but a liberator of tunisian women as well. for 30 years he fought for his country, battling for independence from france, and he was jailed and exiled for his trouble. since independence, he has been his nation's leader. i knew him against the struggle against colonialism. in the equal rights law he banned polygamy. he gave women social and economic rights and introduced the law on the 13th of august, 1956. wo

president bourguiba told us to make women feel like we have a role to play.heir soul. he said he gave women these rights not as a gift but because he saw women's power to lead a postindependence society. saada al—gayed continues to write and campaign on women's issues in tunisia. that's all from witness history this month here at the royal academy. we will be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. but for now, from me and the west of the witness team, goodbye. —— the rest. hello there. very little change to our weather as we head on into the weekend. it looks like it's going to stay largely cloudy, with the best of the sunshine across the north and the west of the country. we'll have further showers or thunderstorms across england and wales where it's going to be quite humid at times, though not as hot as it has been. so, saturday, we start off with quite a lot of cloud across the country, some mist and murk. showers and thunderstorms across southern areas, but the best of the sunshine appearing across western scotl