By Imane Ait-Kaci
The Algerian war of independence reshaped gender roles and women’s identities into a battleground where competing visions of nationhood and modernity clashed.
Algerian women were key participants in the National Liberation Front (FLN) during the revolution where they strategically manipulated colonial expectations by smuggling weapons and intelligence under haïks (veils). The tactical use of the haïk, as Frantz Fanon (1959) noted in his study of the resistance, challenged colonial representations of Algerian women as docile. Yet, despite their integral role, women’s contributions were framed within nationalist discourse as extensions of their nurturing responsibilities rather than as a fundamental challenge to patriarchal hierarchies.
The rhetoric used by the FLN throughout the war implied a commitment to gender equality as a component of national emancipation. Still, as Marnia Lazreg (2018) argues, this was largely a symbolic act as women were mobilised as revolutionary subjects but not as independent political actors. This contradiction became evident in the post-independence period when state policies reinforced gender hierarchies, despite their earlier promises of emancipation. La Nouvelle Femme (the new woman) was deliberately used by the Algerian government as a representation of the country’s advancement following independence. State-led development initiatives portrayed women as symbols of Algeria’s modernity, and because the state frequently highlighted female professionals in its media campaigns, women were encouraged to seek education and enter the workforce. However, this idea of the new Algerian woman was carefully controlled, as she was expected to embody modernity while remaining firmly rooted in national traditions.
This state-managed feminism operated within strict limits. On the one hand, the government actively promoted female participation in public life. But on the other, it reinforced patriarchal control through the same laws that were meant to empower women. This contradiction became most apparent in the 1984 Family Code, which codified male authority by institutionalising polygamy, requiring paternal guardianship in marriage, and granting men unilateral divorce rights (Lazreg, 2018). This hypocrisy mirrors a broader pattern in liberation movements where men pursue emancipation from subjugation while preserving patriarchal structures that maintain their dominance over women through legislative mechanisms. By treating women as dependents of the state and men rather than full citizens, this legal framework exposed the disconnect between nationalist rhetoric and the reality of gender roles.
The Algerian government’s approach to handling women’s rights echoed aspects of colonial rule. Fanon (1959) famously criticised the colonial regime’s so-called “emancipation” efforts, as these policies sought to instrumentalise Algerian women’s bodies as sites of colonial power, just as the independent Algerian state later instrumentalised La Nouvelle Femme as a nationalist symbol. The independent Algerian government rejected the colonial model yet ironically maintained gender as an area of state control. The granting of limited freedoms while preserving patriarchal dominance is an example of the state’s ambiguous approach to women’s liberation. As a result, the nationalist project mirrored colonial practices by treating gender as a means of political legitimation rather than as a domain of substantive rights.
Algerian women have continually resisted state-imposed gender norms, despite these restrictions. 60% of Algeria’s judges and 70% of its lawyers are women, while women dominate in the medical field (Slackman, 2007). The 1990s civil conflict, which saw both state repression and Islamist insurgencies target women, catalysed new feminist activism. The emergence of women’s movements in the 1970s became increasingly vocal in their demands for legal reform, signalling a refusal to remain passive subjects of patriarchal governance. Salhi (2003) notes that women’s activism during this period highlighted the contradictions of the state’s nationalist narrative, exposing the limits of La Nouvelle Femme as a state-defined identity. In recent years, the 2019 Hirak movement has brought discussions about gender and national identity to the forefront. Women played prominent roles in the protests, linking demands for democratic reforms with the fight for gender justice. Contemporary activists have reaffirmed the unfinished project of liberation by invoking the revolutionary legacy of the moudjahidate (female freedom fighters) while rejecting the state’s appropriation of their image. Rather than being a static state construct, the Algerian woman has become a contested site of political struggle.
The contradictions of Algerian nationalism are embodied by the concept of La Nouvelle Femme, who is both modern yet traditional, visible yet constrained, emancipated yet subordinate. Her image has continuously been exploited by the state to negotiate shifting political realities, balancing modernisation with the preservation of patriarchal structures.
The question of women’s emancipation in postcolonial contexts is inseparable from broader struggles over national identity and political power.
Algerian women’s ongoing resistance demonstrates that gender remains central to the nation’s political trajectory. The struggle over La Nouvelle Femme is ultimately a struggle over the meaning of Algerian modernity itself and one that continues to unfold.
References
Fanon, F. (1959). A Dying Colonialism. Grove Press.
Lazreg, M. (2018). The Eloquence of Silence: Algerian Women in Question. Routledge.
Salhi, Z. S. (2003). Algerian women, citizenship, and the “Family Code.” Gender & Development, 11(3), 27–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/741954367
Slackman, M. (2007, May 26). A Quiet Revolution in Algeria: Gains by Women. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/26/world/africa/26algeria.html
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