Taking the example of women active in the Algerian National Liberation Front during the War of Independence, this article examines how different typologies of “the Muslim woman” were challenged, subverted, and reconfigured between 1954 and 1962. The article looks at how women who did not conform to colonial gendered ethnoreligious stereotypes came to threaten the continuing existence of French Algeria both on the ground and on the international stage. It then turns to consider the sexual abuse and rape that women often experienced when captured by the French army. Finally, the article examines the relationship between women, Islamic principles, and the independence movement. Based on extensive interviews with female participants in the war, the article focuses throughout on women's appropriation and subversion of assigned roles and assumptions. A central concern is to compare the analytic categories of “gender” and “race” with the frames of reference these women use to articulate their own lives.
Prenant pour cas d'étude l'exemple de femmes algériennes actives dans le Front de libération nationale pendant la guerre d'indépendance algérienne, cet article analyse comment les différentes typologies de « la femme musulmane » ont été remises en question, subverties et reconfigurées entre 1954 et 1962. L'article examine comment les femmes qui ne correspondaient pas aux stéréotypes genrés et ethno-religieux du système colonial sont devenues une menace pour le maintien de l'Algérie française. Ensuite, il considère les cas d'abus sexuel et de viol subis par les femmes capturées par l'armée française. Enfin, cet article examine les liens entre les femmes, les principes musulmans et le mouvement d'indépendance. Basé sur des entretiens réalisés avec des femmes ayant participé à la guerre, l'accent est mis sur les réponses de ces femmes aux rôles que l'on leur a assignés et comment elles se sont appropriés ces rôles et les ont subvertis. On compare également les catégories d'analyse « genre » et « race » avec les cadres de référence que ces femmes emploient pour articuler leur vie.
Post-independence Algeria, particularly since 1988, has tended to be read through two dominant narratives. These narratives are widely reproduced in the Algerian and international media, in formal and informal political discussion, and indeed its tropes have seeped into much of the academic literature. The first narrative is that of the authoritarian ‘system’ (a nebulous fusion of state and regime) versus the downtrodden ‘people’. The second narrative is that of the perpetual identity crisis, pitching Arabophones against Francophones, Berberophones against Arabophones, Islamists against secularists and social and cultural conservatives (‘tradition’) against progressives (‘modernity’), in a zero-sum struggle to define the language and culture of Algeria. These two narratives intersect, with ‘the system’ depicted as imposing its version of Arabo-Islamic identity, and in doing so steamrollering over both citizens promoting greater pluralism and more stridently Islamist actors.This chapter focuses on the national and transnational construction of this ‘identity crisis’ in academic literature as well as media and popular discourse. In particular, it explores the construction of three rival groups — one Arab/Muslim/FLNist, a second radical Islamist and a third composed of cultural pluralists/progressives (into which are subsumed Berbers and feminists) — which are depicted as engaged in a battle to the death to impose their version of ‘Algerianness’.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.