A scathing condemnation of French torture in Algeria by a classic feminist thinker
In 1960, as the Algerian War of Independence entered its sixth year, 22-year-old Djamila Boubacha was arrested on charges of planting a bomb in a university cafeteria.
While in detention, she was tortured and raped by French soldiers. Had it not been for the efforts of her lawyer, Gisèle Halimi, and the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, to transform her case into an international public opinion issue, it would have been closed like many other cases.Jamila Bubasha represents the culmination of this campaign to expose the systemic violence of colonial rule. Simone de Beauvoir writes: “To protest in the name of morality against ‘abuses’ or ‘abuses’ is a mistake that indicates actual complicity. There are no ‘abuses’ or ‘abuses’ here, but a comprehensive system permeating everywhere.”
More than a historical document, this book is a profound exploration of ethics, complicity, and resistance. It is a classic anti-colonial text, and a story worth reading and remembering.
