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Our fighting sisters: Nation, memory and gender in Algeria, 1954–2012
Between 1954 and 1962, Algerian women played a major role in the struggle to end French rule in one of the twentieth century’s most violent wars of decolonisation. This is the first in-depth exploration of what happened to these women after independence in 1962. Based on new oral history interviews with women who participated in the war in a wide range of roles, from urban bombers to members of the rural guerrilla support network, it explores how female veterans viewed the post-independence state and its multiple discourses on ‘the Algerian woman’ in the fifty years following 1962. It also examines how these former combatants’ memories of the anti-colonial conflict intertwine with, contradict or coexist alongside the state-sponsored narrative of the war constructed after independence. Making an original contribution to debates about gender, nationalism and memory, this book will appeal to students and scholars of history and politics.
296 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 15, 2022
Wonderful book, picked this up for an assignment.
Excellent analysis of the role of women in the Algeria from colonial state to modern Algeria. I was mostly interested in the colonial state and revolution, as that pertained to my assignment, however the sections I did read outside of that range were excellent.
A common theme in colonisation is how the colonialists disproportionately target colonised women. In history narratives found in books, both academic and popular, it is seen as a normal thing. A common thing, nothing of which to be worried about. How is it that it became normal? Why is it normal to subject an entire gender to violence regardless of their participation in war? It is rooted in the patriarchy. Regardless of where we are in history, no matter what the patriarchal structure promises women, it in times of war when the treatment of women is revealed to not have changed since humans first organised into tribes in which to fight other tribes.
As a result, historical narratives gloss over this experience. The mass trauma endured by women is just another footnote, because how dare history books interrupt the experience of the men that represent a new mythos, a new hero, a new national symbol.
This book serves to focus entirely on the experience of women. The treatment of women is not at all glossed over, nor is it relegated to a couple sentences. If you want to know how women suffered under French colonisation, and how the subsequent male dominated politics of a post colonial state excluded them, read this book.
Excellent analysis of the role of women in the Algeria from colonial state to modern Algeria. I was mostly interested in the colonial state and revolution, as that pertained to my assignment, however the sections I did read outside of that range were excellent.
A common theme in colonisation is how the colonialists disproportionately target colonised women. In history narratives found in books, both academic and popular, it is seen as a normal thing. A common thing, nothing of which to be worried about. How is it that it became normal? Why is it normal to subject an entire gender to violence regardless of their participation in war? It is rooted in the patriarchy. Regardless of where we are in history, no matter what the patriarchal structure promises women, it in times of war when the treatment of women is revealed to not have changed since humans first organised into tribes in which to fight other tribes.
As a result, historical narratives gloss over this experience. The mass trauma endured by women is just another footnote, because how dare history books interrupt the experience of the men that represent a new mythos, a new hero, a new national symbol.
This book serves to focus entirely on the experience of women. The treatment of women is not at all glossed over, nor is it relegated to a couple sentences. If you want to know how women suffered under French colonisation, and how the subsequent male dominated politics of a post colonial state excluded them, read this book.
August 13, 2025
A must read if you are interested by what happened to algerian women during the war of independence and after. A well sourced and well written book .
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews