Battle Of Algiers Essay

Women played a major role in the Battle for Algiers, during the war for independence. During that time of cultural crisis, limitations and prejudices were disregarded in the unity created by their great need. While not all women supported independence, most did, joining the National Liberation Front (NLF). Using their femininity as a shield and a mask, women were able to infiltrate enemy lines and make major inroads for their liberty (White, 2013). By some women’s role in this decisive effort has been marginalized, but historians are keeping awareness about it fresh.

In the war for independence, the women of Algiers mobilized to defend their liberty (Lecture Notes). However, in many cases women are defending the very culture that disempowers them (White, 2013). The French colonial aggressors believed that making Algerians Christian would be enough to make them subservient, but their Muslim faiths would not waver (Fantasia & Hirsch, 1995). Women engaged in armed conflict in the hope of securing greater rights and freedoms for themselves. Although the 1962 Algiers constitution did give women the right to vote in national elections, many gender

stereotypes still remain today (Rohloff, 2012). Beginning in 1956, the Battle of Algiers was maintained by small guerilla forces led by local citizens took on a strong modern army. Many sources emphasize that the battle could not have been won without the assistance of women. The guerilla efforts were led by the National Liberation Movement (FLN) (Smith, 2008).
Local woman, Djamila Bouhired helped organize other women in support of the FLN’s effort. Historians relate, “Dressed as Frenchwomen, Bouhired and two other female militants placed concealed bombs in the European sections of Algiers. Two bombs exploded, causing civilian causalities…This event and others unleashed the Battle of Algiers, which raged until 1957” (Smith, 2008, p. 251). In response to these efforts, Bouhired was arrested, jailed, and tortured. She became an emblem for women fighters, highlighting the French army’s use of torture, and eventually secured release. After the battle, taking stock, the newly free Algerian government cited almost eleven thousand women as war veterans. However, historians are quick to emphasize that this number underestimates the many and varied contribution of women (Smith, 2008).
During the Battle of Algiers the French army realized the large contribution women were making, and enacted a propaganda coup.

This entailed, “elaborately designed events to show Algerian men that, should Algerian women choose to align with the French, the liberation movement would be lost. The purported goals of liberating Algerian women were nothing more than a thinly disguised divide-and-conquer strategy” (De Groot & Peniston-Bird, 2014, p. 246). The French attempted to bait Algerian men into enforcing their own enslavement both ideologically and actually by restraining women from fighting for their freedom (Lecture Notes). This is a tactic that had worked in the past, but the level of oppression has become too overbearing to ignore. Men turned to their women for support like never before, and women rose to the

occasion.
Women were not able to be easily manipulated by this tactic of divisionism. They used the traditional veil as a disguise and a weapon. Women were able to attack and take cover behind their veils, and this could have only been successful in the largely urban battle-scape (Trutt, 2011). While men moved underground and hidden, women were able to move more freely in disguise. In this fashion women played an indispensable part in relaying intelligence and carrying out objectives (De Groot & Peniston-Bird, 2014). Women either joined the civilian ranks of the FLN or volunteered for the solider ranks of the National Liberation Army (ALN). This choice was decided by location as well as education. More educated urban women (20%) often chose to enter in the FLN by choice and passion. However, women in the rural areas (80%) were often pressed into conflict due to it being in their regions. Women were active combatants, intelligence officers, as well as nurses. Most women joined the civilian ranks of the FLN. Women provided the valuable foundation that kept the men functioning and aware (De Groot & Peniston-Bird, 2014).
The FLN chose to strike most at areas that held many French colonials in order to scare them into leaving and thus terrorism was applied for freedom (White, 2013). White (2013) comments, “Terrorism, the more horrific the better, was designed to communicate insecurity and fear. The other side of the strategy also involved communication…the FLN sought international publicity and sympathy” (p. 164). Their efforts at blind terrorism was to show the French government that they were not the ones in control. White (2013) reveals, “the FLN slipped into Algerian suburbs and outlying French towns to massacre entire groups of colonial families. Their primary tactic was to slit the throats of their victims, making sure their bodies would be on display the next morning” (p. 164). While the FLN planned to move beyond this phase they never did, and terrorism was the means to their freedom. Using terrorism as its base the FLN increased the strategic and intelligent nature of their attacks.
The realities of war are unglamorous and sad stains on the collective psyche of humanity. Algerians felt pressed to the limit through colonial oppression, and took out their frustration and desire for freedom in the most brutal ways possible. Women chose to stand and defend their own and their families’ desire for freedom, but the freedom that was won was not total. Gender oppression and economic slavery continue to exist in Algeria and many parts of the world. Ultimately terrorism produces only more terror and limitations.