The civil controller shall automatically undertake a review of the history and character of the applicant [...] In each case, the results of the investigation, together with the request and supporting documents are sent to the Resident-general, who passes on the folder, with his reasoned opinion, to the Ministry of Foreign affairs.

[2] The 1910 law extended the possibility of applying for naturalization only to Tunisian husbands of French women (with children), to holders of higher degrees (at that time, these could be earned only in France), and to those who had been deemed medically unfit to serve in the armed forces.

[3][4] However, the reactions to the 1921 decree, which eased the access to French citizenship for foreigners (mostly Jews and Italians) born in Tunisia,[5] were lively.

Under these provisions, those who could apply for French citizenship were:[3][9] One of the first Tunisians to oppose the law was Tahar Haddad who feared the desertion of his countrymen interested in the material benefits of naturalization.

[11] Habib Bey eventually signed the new law into effect, putting an end to their campaign, weakening the nationalist party.

[13] Lucien Saint, the Resident-General of France, who was the originator of this law, wanted to weaken the nationalist movement by attracting its better-educated members.

When he left Tunisia on January 2, 1929, he did not know that he was leaving his successor François Manceron a time bomb that would re-animate the Tunisian national movement once again.

Waiting for more favourable conditions, they focused on setting up Destourian cells in the countryside and created numerous labor unions in each corporation.

[16] On that same day, a spahi of Bizerte, also a naturalized French citizen, had to call the local authorities to intervene in order to bury one of his young sons in the Muslim cemetery.

In order to remove any ambiguity about burial rights, Resident-General François Manceron asked for Cheikh el Islam Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur's advice, in April 1933.

Manceron, therefore, informed the French minister of foreign affairs, Joseph Paul-Boncour, of his failure:[17] We had every reason to believe that the response of Sharaa would be affirmative and that it would therefore be likely to resolve this difficult issue, but some religious judges' indiscretions have caused the unrest that I point out.

It is feared that, even if the legal advice is favorable, it cannot usefully serve us because the Destourians maintain that we lobbied the Sharaa and that such an opinion, not freely issued, has no value.The Resident-General was not mistaken: When the new fatwa was confirmed, students of Ez-Zitouna started a strike and demanded the removal of its author.

[20] When rumors regarding the drafting of a fatwa favorable to the Residence spread, the representative of Constantine in the French chamber of deputies, Émile Morinaud, demanded that the Minister of Foreign Affairs accelerate the naturalization policy, on April 6.

[25][26] To express his disagreement with al-Tahir ibn Ashur, Mohamed Bechir Naifer (1889-1974), imam in Ez-Zitouna Mosque, wrote a fatwa specifying that a Muslim seeking naturalization was considered to have renounced his faith.

In order to avoid reprisals against the writers of the text, it was copied and signed by Muhammed Salah Naifer (1902-1993) who transmitted it to L'Action Tunisienne journal.

[28]The absence of signatures was justified by the editors of the paper: "In order not to put these teachers in an awkward position towards the administration and avoid the retaliation of "Sidi Tahar," we will not publish their names that we keep for ourselves".

[31] The success of popular mobilization galvanized activists to such a point that they demanded the holding of an extraordinary Destour Congress, which took place on May 12 and May 13 in rue de la Montagne, Tunis.

The happiness did not last: On September 4, following a shooting in Monastir cemetery, Habib Bourguiba led a protest delegation of Monastirians to see Ahmed Bey.