The Algerian War for Independence:

A battle against colonial rule and gender oppression

The Algerian War for Independence gave Algerian women a chance to stand up against their background of oppression. Indeed, in the wartime era we will see how women used direct action and passive resistance to reframe the independence movement and reject colonial control and patriarchal subjugation.

Female Wartime Involvement

"Women, like men, dreamed of an independent Algeria which they would build together." - Algerian filmmaker Wiame Awres

Scenes in La Bataille D'Alger in which women bomb Alger's European centers.

Despite centuries of life partitioned into the private sphere, the urgency of the Algerian liberation effort allowed for an abandon of these gender restrictions. In fact, during the war thousands of women were involved in revolutionary groups, and especially in the FLN. Female participation involved serving as transporters & carriers of weapons, fundraisers, nursers, communicators, and cooks. As seen in the 1966 film La Bataille D'Alger, many women were even directly involved in the conflict as militants for the FLN. The film, which is a piece of historical fiction about the 1957 Battle of Algiers, shows Algerian women serving as paramilitary combatants who carry messages, arms, and even bombs in the face of risk of arrest, torture, and death. The film's most famous scene shows three women placing simultaneous bombs in European centers in Algiers, a turning point in the battle against the French. While the work is fictional, it is based on the very real work of women in the epicenter of the war and portrays the genuine dangers that they faced. Women in rural regions were also essential in wartime. These areas lost most of their male population to the war, and so women took on the role of store owners, politicians, and armed guards to ensure their villages were both safe and fully functioning.

Individual Stories

Over 336,000 women participated in the revolutionary effort, and each militant has their own impressive story. The following are just a few examples of women who acted as key players in the Algerian War for Independence:

Drif with French guards following her arrest

Zohra Drif (1934-)

Zohra Drif was an Algerian militant in the FLN who both supported and spearheaded a variety of high profile attacks against the French Amry. She is most famous for placing three bombs in an ice cream parlor in Algiers, an attack that resulted in dozens of European casualties and marked a key moment for the FLN in the Battle of Algiers. Drif was captured for her action and condemned to 20 years of forced labor by the French army. However, upon Algerian independence she was released and went on to pursue a career as a human rights lawyer and the Vice President of the Algerian National council.

Djamilia Bouhired (1937-)

Algerian militant Djamila Bouhired has displayed similar revolutionary spirit since a young age. In fact, when Bouhired was only in elementary school she chanted "Algeria is our mother" instead of the French curriculum's mantra "France is our mother." From here, Bouhired joined the FLN at only twenty years old and participated in the fedayin, the group’s armed militant squadron. She was arrested for her involvement in 1957, and the value of Djamilia’s work to the FLN can be seen in the subsequent global outcry for her liberation; celebrated poet Nizar Kabbani, filmmaker Youssef Chahine, soviet leader Nikita Khrouchtchev, and even Egyptian president Famal Abdel Nassar made public statements demanding her release. Despite this protest, Bouhired remained in prison until her country gained Independence in 1962. However, like Drif she returned to the political scene soon after her release, and in 2019 she was stood as an outspoken leader for gender equality in the Revolution of Smiles.

Bouhired meeting the Egyptian President after her release

A photo of Amrane -Minne taken during her time as a professor

Danièle Djamila Amrane-Minne (1934-2017)

Born in Paris as a daughter of Algerian immigrants, Amrane-Minne worked as an agent for the FLN in both Algeria and in France. Her principal duty was acting as a liaison between FLN leaders; however, she also raised funds to finance the Algerian war effort, recruited other women to the FLN, and served as a transporter of arms. She is most well known for hiding arms in her son's stroller in the place of where a baby would have been. Armane-Mimme is one of the only known European women to be arrested for her involvement with the FLN, and despite being beaten, electrocuted, and waterboarded during her interrogation, she never divulged any information relating to the FLN's operations. After liberation, Amrane-Minne went back to school to write a PhD dissertation and teach university classes about the participation of Algerian women in the war.

Breaking Gender Barriers

"The participation of women in the war marked a violent rupture with the traditional gender norms in Muslim families." - Algerian Professor and Historian Ryme Seferdjeli

Pictured are FLN militants preparing their weapons. The right to bear arms was reserved for men before the war, but during the conflict women carried weapons just as men would.

Commitment like that of Drif, Bouhired, and Amrane-Minne was valuable in helping Algeria fight against colonial rule. However, it also gave women the opportunity to reject society's patriarchal customs. Due to the urgency of the effort for liberation, women took on roles that would have been prohibited prior to fighting. For example, women were able to leave their homes unattended, join groups like the FLN without their families’ permission, and integrate into formerly all-male military camps. Women's social circles also widened. Before the war, it was taboo for a woman to interact with men outside of her family. However, during the war women spoke frequently with FLN militants who were men, and in rural areas women were able to speak and even do business with other men in their village if their husband was away at war. This change is demonstrated by Chérifa A., an Algerian woman who lived in a rural area during the war, when she explains, "Before the war, I could not even see another man, other than those in my family. But, during the war things were different... It was like I replaced the role of my husband when he was not there."

Defying Stereotypes

"The war of liberation enabled the Algerian woman to assert herself by carrying out responsibilities side by side with a man." - La Charte d'Alger, an analysis of the socioeconomic and political situation in Algeria made by the new government in 1964

Not only did the liberation effort allow women to surpass traditional gender barriers, but it also helped them to reject gender stereotypes and assert themselves as equally competent to their male counterparts. Indeed, female involvement proved that women were far more capable, strong, and courageous than they were made out to be by the French and their own society's patriarchal norms. This change in perspective is shown in Pablo Picasso’s 1955 painting Les Femmes d’Alger. Compared to Delacroix's Les femmes dans leur appartement, which shows women who are seated, passive, and within closed walls, Picasso’s work portrays women who are standing, confident, and facing the viewer head on. His work conveys a sense of determination and autonomy, with women who are ready to literally explode for their liberty. This empowering imagery shows how women succeeded in using wartime participation as an opportunity to defy centuries of confining sexist and racist attitudes and prove themselves as equals.

Pablo Picasso's Les Femmes D'Alger, 1955

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