Last Daughter of Deposed Tunisian Bey Dies at 92 in Morocco

The family’s life took a turn in 1957, the year in which the Bey of Tunis had been deposed and placed under house arrest in an abandoned old house without water or electricity. In 1962, Princess Lilia Bey and her husband, Dr. Mohamed Chelly, left Tunisia for Morocco. Shortly after, their six children had joined them. Later, the couple had three more children in Casablanca.

Taj El Molk Lilia Housseini is described as "a lady known and respected by all who knew her". According to the testimony of her offspring cited by Médias24, she raised her children with love for others, affection, simplicity, humility, never complaining, despite exile and financial problems. Four of them became doctors practicing in Morocco, just like their father.

Graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, Dr. Mohamed Chelly worked as a surgeon and chief medical officer of the civil hospital in Tetouan, from 1962 to 1966. In 1966, he worked as a surgeon at the OCP hospital in Khouribga. In Casablanca, he practiced until his death in 1987.

The grandchildren of the deposed monarch are fighting to rectify the history of their grandfather. They have done memory work and denounced the injustice, contempt and mistreatment of which the last Bey of the Husseini dynasty was a victim.