“Boumediene read the Quran twice in the last Ramadan in his life,” says former Algerian president’s wife

Late Algerian President Houari Boumediene’s wife Anissa Boumediene translated thousand verses of Khansaa’s Arabic poem. She wrote a biography about her in 1987 untitled ‘Khansaa, I am Arab poet and woman.’

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  Anissa Boumediene also published a poem in French untitled ‘Day and Night’ in 1980. She praised Algeria’s beauty and lamented her husband. She shared her sweetest days with Houari Boumediene and lived with him great events. She lived with him his disease pains until he passed away.
  

  He taught me chess and learnt Arab poems by heart
  

  The death of President Houari Boumediene pushed Anissa to read, research and write. She does not leave libraries and used historical documents to write articles. In 2003, she wrote a book untitled ‘The End of the World.’ It tells about big events in the Arab and Islamic world following the death of the Prophet Mohamed (Peace Be Upon Him).

  All her writings refer to the life of her husband. She has never thought about taking her sadness off from her world. She sees in her husband a knight, a hero, a lover and a president. 

  
  

  Each time I meet Anissa Boumediene and we talk about the late president, she sheds tears and can not control herself. She keeps silence to catch her breath. Anyone can see the sadness on her face which shows that this great and patient woman is still sad about loosing her man. How can those pains leave her while she lives in a terrible emptiness? This emptiness was left by the man who represented every thing in her life. He was the husband, the friend, the companion, the father and the son. He could heal her wounds when her father passed away. He was an artist in making her smiling. She was a spoilt girl loved by her father. She got the same love from her husband who offered her plenty of emotions, affection, tender feelings and security.

  
  

  The president did not express his love by words. He preferred to express his feelings by acts. He had surprised his wife by a bunch of flowers for many times. He lived with Anissa like any man who has feelings. He played with her chess in his free time.

  Once, he surprised her when he entered home and heard her reading out loud a poem of Imru al Qays. He told the 30 remaining verses of the poem without any error. 
  

  All those moments left memories in her mind. She keeps he image of a smiling man who showed tender feelings to her. He was a cultivated man, learnt poems by heart and had a large knowledge about Arab and world literature. He was also a religion-practicing man and learnt the Quran by heart. Anissa said he read the Quran twice in the last fasting month of Ramadan in his life.
  

  
  

  His story with a student  
  

  Anissa Boumediene talked about Boumediene’s character. That shows that he was a gentle, a serious, a polite and a tender Algerian man. His people liked that in him. The strict president shortly showed his humanity each time he met farmers in countryside. He smiled to them and made them feeling as if he was a close friend.
  

  The president also felt good when he met students. He organised annual meetings with volunteers to the agricultural revolution. He discussed with them freely about several topics. There was no president who held such discussions with students in history.  A student compared himself to the president, saying to him “how do we talk about socialism while you smoke cigar and I smoke cigarette?” The debate was broadcast on TV without any censorship. Boumediene assured him when he told him “my son, I don’t pay the cigar price from the State’s Treasury but it is a gift from Cuban President Fidel Castro.
  

  A student showed fears about the fact that the agricultural revolution law would exclude people in power. Houari Boumediene told him: “if you are talking about me and people with me in power, I tell you publicly that power is you students. The proof is that you will go to the countryside and you will check freely files. If you find a member of the Revolution Council, the government, the party or the Popular National Army, nationalise it without getting permit from any one.”

  At that time, Algerians were not asked to present visa to enter any country in the world. They did not find difficulties in acquiring French nationalities or any other Western ones.

  All the immigrants’ sons preferred to serve in the Algerian army for two years than in the French one for a year.

  He refused to intervene to make his brother benefit from military service deferment

  Those are sufficient example to show that Houari Boumediene’s era was the best one in Algeria.

  According to the president’s wife, Boumediene was a strong politician and a simple man at the same time. In his house, he did not have any maid. He brought his cook from a military barracks. He knew cooking beans, lentils and pasta only. Anissa Boumediene tried to give him some recipes but he could not cook them. That did not bother the president because his favourite meal was traditional bread with milk and other traditional meals. Those meals were sent by his mother. One day, she was angry on him because he did not want to intervene to make his brother benefit from military service deferment.

  
  

  Peace maker

  President Boumediene trusted his wife’s taste in choosing clothes. She says he was very sensitive about poor and oppressed people. That made the revolutionary man a peaceful person at the same time.

  If Algerians keep in mind the president’s image hitting the microphone with his fingers and repeating his famous word ‘we decided,’ they also keep in mind his smile with people.

  According to his wife, he was meticulous in his work and careful in the good running of the State’s budget. In meetings, he did not talk a lot but he listened a lot. 
  

  Today, Anissa is proud of keeping in mind the image of a courageous, friendly and brave man even if he did not left any material thing for her. “If I have the opportunity to come back to those days, I would accept it even if I did not inherit any thing from him. His greatness is above any consideration.”