1. Driss Guiga was born on 21 October 1924 and is a Tunisian lawyer and politician who was Minister of Health, Minister of Education and then Minister of the Interior for four years during the later part of the Habib Bourguiba regime.
20 Facts About Driss Guiga
1. 2.
Driss Guiga's birthplace was Testour, a village in the northwest of Tunisia where his father was a teacher.
3.
Driss Guiga joined the national movement when he was 14 and was a student at Sadiki College in Tunis.
4.
Driss Guiga studied law and history at the University of Algiers, where he met his future wife Chacha, a painter.
5.
Driss Guiga then enrolled at the Law Faculty of Paris, where he obtained a diploma in civil law in 1949.
6.
Driss Guiga wrote for the journal Mission created by Hedi Amara Nouira.
7.
Driss Guiga was arrested in 1952 and spent seven months in prison.
8.
In 1952 Driss Guiga was appointed Head of the Office of the Minister of Public Health.
9.
Driss Guiga left this last position after the plot against the former president in 1962, which his service did not foresee.
10.
Driss Guiga was State Secretary for Public Health and Social Affairs in 1969, then Minister of Public Health.
11.
Driss Guiga was appointed Minister of Education in 1973 after the general strike against the Arabization program advocated by Mohammed Mzali.
12.
Driss Guiga succeeded Mzali as Minister of Education in March 1973.
13.
Driss Guiga was uninterested in reform, saying in a press interview that the more important task was to stabilize and control the education system.
14.
Driss Guiga wanted to increase the number of teachers, introduce common standards and define career paths for teachers.
15.
Driss Guiga was blamed for the ruthless way in which the disturbances had been suppressed.
16.
Driss Guiga left Tunisia soon after the riots ended and moved to London.
17.
Driss Guiga was tried by the High Court on a charge of treason and was sentenced in absentia to ten years in prison.
18.
Driss Guiga returned to Tunis on 8 November 1987 immediately after Bourguiba was deposed.
19.
Driss Guiga spent 13 days in prison, then was given a five-year suspended jail sentence and was released.
20.
Driss Guiga had been decorated with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Tunisian Republic and made Commander of the Order of Tunisian Independence.