Algerian Women’s International Activism, 1962–80: Global South Socialist Feminism, Decolonization, and Unraveling the Myth of Postrevolution Disengagement

Amid the Algerian Revolution, a conflict to end French occupation of the North African territory, Algerian Muslim women became daring symbols of decolonial resistance around the world. Women did indeed support the cause of national independence in Algeria in a myriad of ways. As the war wound down and the country faced numerous challenges due to colonial underdevelopment, Algerian women remained active as they always had been in public life (Vince 2015). However, emphasis on women’s engagement during the decolonization struggle worked to obscure this postcolonial activism. Then, the 1984 Family Code reduced women’s status to that of minors in the country. Women rose up first to try to block the reform and then to denounce it in a moment widely considered the birth of Algeria’s modern feminist movement (Lalami 2012; Rouadjia 2006).

This paper argues that the widespread activism and high visibility of Algerian women during the Revolution and then again at the time of the Family Code debates have resulted in a general overshadowing of women’s activism in the period between these critical events. I correct this error by taking a granular approach to study the post-independence government’s official women’s organization, the National Union of Algerian Women. By evaluating media coverage, oral history narratives, and the Union’s official internal and public documents, this presentation will show that, while the Union failed to improve the lives of Algerian women domestically from 1962 until 1980 (Vince 2015), it played a critical role in the postcolonial state’s promotion of itself as a “Third World” leader (Byrnes 2019). In the process, I show the importance of breaking away from overly simplistic visions of state feminists in SWANA contexts as mere puppets of their government, highlighting Union members’ agency in fighting to improve women’s rights around the world by thwarting colonialism.