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Refusing to Melt in Their World
| Article
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13953 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1988 |
5,028 Words |
| Author
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Aida Bamia
Aida Bamia is a professor in the Department of African and
Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Florida.
This article is drawn from her research and numerous
interviews during her working years in Constantine and Annaba,
from 1973 to 1984, and visits during 1986 and 1987.
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In the life cycle of an Algerian woman, traditional beliefs and practices play a special role. Used to affirm family authority in childhood and adolescence, traditions often serve as instruments of repression and discrimination and become cards played in conflicts between the generations and the sexes. In adulthood, former victims manipulate those same traditions to assert their own will, revenging themselves upon an oppressive society. Consequently, in a contemporary Algeria torn between the demands of traditional life and the lures of modernity, traditions have a somewhat ambiguous role and character.
Algeria gained independence from France in 1962. Many women, such as Hasiba ben Bouali and Djamila Boubacha, gave their lives in this struggle. Women entrusted with secret missions proved invaluable to the male freedom fighters who were willing during those extreme times to disregard many traditional practices that they fully expected to reimpose later. The men certainly did not anticipate any difficulty in restoring preindependence domestic conditions and sexual roles.
But after generations of repression, women had finally escaped the constant surveillance and control of the male members of their families. They had found a freedom that they would not willingly relinquish. They were determined to work with men side by side in building an independent new Algeria. As a result, women's conduct became amazingly daring and quite shocking to traditional Algerian society.
Tradition and male resistance inhibit women's emancipation
Traditionally, the Algerian man referred to the woman as the "household," or if he made a personal reference concerning his own wife, for example, he used the expression "with all due respect to you" as a tacit apology for mentioning the word "woman" out loud. Women had few rights and were completely subordinate to male control. Men were unable and unwilling to accept women as equals. But having played their part in the fight to gain freedom from the French, women became equally obstinate in their quest for equality. Faced with both resistance from a traditional society and aggressive and abusive male behavior, women adopted a defiant attitude, determined to win this battle as well.
As custom dictated, women left the house only to go to the hamman (Turkish public bath), to attend weddings or funerals, or to take part in other ceremonies--always secluded from men. Even orchestras for such ceremonies were composed
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