Stories in a Snapshot : simplebooklet.com

The year is 1955. The spring season that often begins aroundMarch in this coastal Mediterranean region of the Kasbahﺔـَﺒـَﺼـَﻗ , the original name for the city of Algiers, welcomes apleasant breeze that travels past a stranger in a Frenchmilitary uniform toward the familiar fabric of a woman’s veil,and reaches the tail of a smart blazer grazing the shoulders ofa young woman, no older than 28 years, named NassimaHablal. The direction of her eyes follows the path the breezetakes, as if responding to the vibrant energy of the woman itenvelops, billowing up the right side of the jacket and subtlypulling the curled ends of her hair away from her face. Algierswas the second-largest city in France at the time, fitted withHaussmann-like architecture and 330,000 pied-noirs, orAlgerians of European descent – a dramatic expansion fromthe smaller population of 40,000 before its colonialrestructuring. Upon reaching Independence in 1962, the FLNattempted to revert the urban environment of Algiers byrenaming streets and squares that reflect former resistancefighters of its anti-colonial struggle. As Nassima observes hersurroundings and reaches an intersection in the Frenchquarters of the Kasbah, she looks to the distance, just highenough to imagine Rue des Colons [Street of Settlers] becomeRue des Libérés [Street of the Liberated], and grins. Image caption: Nassima Hablal, approximately 1955. Photograph featured in film 10949Women (2014) dir. by Nassima Guessoum.

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Algerian sister! Algerian woman!From the mountains, the valleys and the rivers,your sisters in the maquis demand your attention.Algerian woman, listen,don’t you hear the boots of the French occupier stamping on our pavements?They are fleeing faced with the armed mujahedeen andviolently attacking the unarmed people with their characteristic barbarianism.Listen, from bombed and burnt villages, from concentration camps,torture chambers and dungeons a huge cry can be heard.Can you not hear the cries of Algerian men and women massacred and tortured?- Text from an FLN leaflet captured by the French Army Source:(Service historique de la défense (French Army Archives), Vincennes, Paris, n.d.), Box1H1644. Army Headquarters (Etat Major General), Region 2, zone 6, wilaya 4The words above come from an FLN leaflet distributed throughout Algeria and arecurrently housed in the Service historique de la défense in Vincennes, Paris.Although one copy was confiscated by the French Army during the Algerian War,many others would end up in the hands of women of all ages in the maquis, or ruralareas, like the FLN combatant pictured here. Many women in the maquis, alsoknown as maquiserades, were not equipped with the proper uniform necessary forrough terrains in the mountainous region. The maquiserade in this photographdons a uniform with rolled up sleeves - a quick alteration to an oversized men'suniform borrowed second-hand. The tight controls on trade by the Frenchauthorities often made all imports and wholesale purchases difficult, but especiallyfor military uniforms and boots. The casual slides on her feet indicate a smaller footsize that miss the opportunity for suitable shoes, and in turn would bear thechallenges of cold weather and rough terrains. If a maquiserade was fortunateenough to find a pair of combat boots in her size, she would be eligible to model forFLN photographic propaganda that countered the claims of the war as a nationaliststruggle led by religious extremists that excluded liberation for women. (See the portrait of Kheira Leïla Tayeb for an example). This photograph, however,was circulated in French press and media whose intended purpose and strategywould be left up to the publisher. FLN Combatant standing guard while holding a semi-automatic rifle behind a barbed wire fence, c.1962, Photo Dalmas (copyright), Peter Hunter Press Archives, International Institute of Social History(Amsterdam), IISG BG B23/52, purchased October 2020.

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Léonec Kierzkowski/ECPAD/Autodéfense féminine de Catinat, à 12 kilomètres au sud-estd'El-Milia/March 10th, 1960/ALG 60-123 R28As opposed to the small number of often staged portrayals ofheroic FLN moudjahidates taken by the FLN's audiovisualteam (Mohamed Kouaci and René Vautier, et al.), there aremass amounts of documentary photographs featuring FLNmoudjahidates taken by members of the French military.The unknown FLN moudjahidate pictured here is not threatened by the presence of a French officer capturing herimage with his camera. She is focused on her training andonly momentarily glances back at the camera, unfazed. Hercable knit sweater, scarf, and beret, though visuallyappealing, are not worn for a photoshoot event, but dailyrifle practice. Contradictory as it may seem given the enemy relationship,the French military captured a huge volume of images ofFLN moudjahidates with the intent of being purelyinformational and unbiased. These photos would then bepassed into the world media and published in variouspublications during wartime. In the years following the war,a former officer might give his collection of originals to aFrench archive, such as Établissement de Communication etde Production Audiovisualle de la Défense (ECPAD), as is thecase with this photograph. Thus, the officer's job here is notto intimidate, but rather to document an FLN moudjahidateas she prepares for the day her nation wins the war.

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FLN moudjahidate at a demonstration for Algeria's Independence, February 1960, InternationalMagazine Service, Stockholm, and Agence Dalmas, Paris. Digital copy sold to IMS Vintage.Permission by owner Maura McCreight.The week known as La Semaine des Barricades, or week of thebarricades, designates a far-right paramilitary insurrectionin the Kasbah, also known as the city of Algiers. Thisphotograph captures a glimpse from the last day of therioting on February 1st, 1960 of three FLN comradesdemonstrating against the pro-French Algeria militants inthe middle of a crowded street. The FLN counter-protesterswatch in distress as their not-yet-a-nation's capital isdestroyed. The main instigator of the uprising is PierreLagaillarde, founder of the OAS (Organisation arméesecrète), a far-right French paramilitary group that hecreates a year after La Semaine des Barricades. The twomoudjahidates wearing military fatigues are a visualcontrast to the images found in issues of LIFE magazinefrom the time that show Pierre's wife, Madame Lagaillard,fresh faced with a handbag in tow as she cheers in supportof French Algeria. Police passively observe as Lagaillardeand his fellow pieds-noirs make barricades of wood, barbedwire, metal, and other heavy materials. Similarly, thegovernment leaders stand idly as their administrativebuildings and Algerian establishments are destroyed. It isnot until the (this) final day that General de Gaulle musters acall to the end of the insurrection and a trial for the maininstigators, including Pierre Lagaillarde, is set in motion.

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Djamila Boupacha, an FLN liaison agent, was only twenty-three when shewas arrested by the French military for a bomb attempt in Algiers. Her storyof torture and rape while in French custody is not unique in comparisonwith other FLN women during war. However, Djamila's testimony wasmade internationally known by the support work of her attorney GisèleHalimi and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir who published a book togetherabout her trial shortly after the Évian agreement was reached. Included inthe book is a sketch of Djamila by Pablo Picasso who took an ardent interestin supporting her defense. It is unclear why Picasso decided to add thisphotographic print of Djamila in a Café to his personal collection since thewidely circulated sketch he drew of her is likely based on another image (see next page). Additionally, the ambiguous date of the print (i.e. between 1955and 1960) confirmed by the Musée National Picasso suggests multiplecontextual interpretations. In the early years of the war (1954-55) Djamilawas working as a trainee at Béni Messous but was denied certificationtraining because of her race and religion. Later, bomb attacks were carriedout by the FLN's notable trio Djamila Bouhired, Zohra Drif, and SamiaLakhdari during Battle of Algiers campaign in 1957. However, DjamilaBoupacha was not arrested until 1960 and (under torture) admits to a bombattempt in 1959. This relevant historical information plus visual contextsuggest a number of possible readings for the image of Djamila on theprevious page.Is the object in the foreground a stainless steel seltzer bottle or a fireextinguisher? Is the man to her right a reporter, policeman, or a managertaking inventory of the cafe? Is Djamila's hand grazing her forehead out ofanguish for being questioned or pushing her hair aside before she places anorder for a coffee? Associated Press (20th century CE) Photographic portrait of Djamila Boupacha in a café,transmitted to Pablo Picasso, 1955-1960. Silver gelatin print. 24 x 18.2 cm. Pablo Picasso'spersonal archives. Inv no 515AP/G/2/2/4/1 Permission obtained from Claire Garnier MuséePicasso. Musée national Picasso, Paris, France © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

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The expression on Djamila's face while incarcerated at Pauprison shows a heightened awareness of both an indeterminableinterior and a literal, repressive, demanding exterior of theprison fence. Her neatly pin-backed hair reveals a clear shape ofher face with a stare searing past the fence that keeps her fromfreedom. The smell of the shampoo from her toiletry kit waftsaround her for a few fleeting moments until the vapors absorbinto the concrete walls behind her. The softness of her blouse, agarment she once put on with ease now requires achingmovements from bruises inflicted on her body, reminding her ofhow she longs for a private embrace with her mother. Her mindswitches to another memory of a Chief Ward interposing a hugbetween her and her mother in a visiting room in Lisieux. Thethought triggers a movement in her chest that feels like a tree isgrowing inside her, and she sways slightly. The wire of the fenceseen in the photograph creates a grid overlay of her face. Themetal framing visually recalls the moment Djamila first saw theEiffel Tower. Growing up as a young girl in Algeria, it had been adream of hers to see the wrought-iron lattice architecturallandmark. During her transfer flight from a prison in Algeria toa prison in France, she gleefully caught a glimpse of the tower. Itwas her first trip by air. Djamila Boupacha, c. 1962, captioned “Djamila Boupacha in Pau prison” in Simone deBeauvoir and Gisèle Halimi’s Djamila Boupacha: The story of the torture of a youngAlgerian girl which shocked liberal French opinion, published by The Macmillan Company,New York, 1962, p. 96.

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10, 949 fighting women joined the struggle for Independence inAlgeria during the war years. To 'join' the struggle women had tobe proper fighters associated with the FLN (National LiberationFront) or the ALN (National Liberation Army). However, in themaquis other women who were not part of the armed combatwould look after the FLN moudjahidate and moussebilate; cookingfor them, making them coffee, bringing them their letters thatwere sent to safehouses, and even covering their trails with dirt,sticks, and rocks. These 'other' women were central to the survivalof FLN women, the latter of which the FLN/ALN factions were notinitially apt to recognize. In an FLN/ALN handbook dated August1956, "Les mouvements des femmes" was a paragraph long sectionthat appeared at the very end and defined women's role as givingmoral support, instructions and helping children of othermaquisards (men militants in the maquis). However, the inclusionof women in militant leadership roles ultimately becomes the onlyway to win the war, and women's involvement becomes active in allfields and levels of battle. This image of Fatiha with her husband depicts her front facing andtaking up the majority of the space in the photo. Her short hair anddirect gaze connote a lack of frivolity that seems to contradict herdisheveled and ill fitting uniform. She leans in to her husband'sside, steadying herself while bending her left knee in a moderncontrapposto stance. She is aware of her gender and its perceptionin war, but doesn't need to be understood to continue fighting.A Maquisard Couple, Fatiha Hermouche and Her Husband, Arezki. Photo Taken in the Maquisin Algerois., 1957, Danièle Djamila Amrane-Minne. Published in Les Femmes algériennes dans laguerre by Plon in 1991.

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Zohra Drif was born in 1934 in Tissemselt, a part of the Tiaretprovince in central Algeria made up of farming regions. In 1955,she withdraws from law school at the University of Algiers to jointhe FLN. To her comrades, Zohra is known as one of the fidayates,or the women who planted bombs in the main cities. The fidayateare able to clandestinely carry out such acts because of their abilityto do so in 'Europeanizing' disguise. These women befuddled theminds of the French army,who refer to Zohra as an évolué. Howcould such an attractive, French-educated, and young innocentwoman end up with a bomb in her purse on behalf of a terroristorganization? Although her European style dress and hairconfused the French Army, since to their minds this kind ofappearance made her an 'emancipated Muslim woman' (who doesnot wear a haik), the FLN uses this befuddlement as a militanttactic. She recalls:"We are not killers. We are fighters for a just cause, moved by the mostsacred of duties: to liberate our land and our people. It is the colonial regimethat kills -torturing, oppressing, and repressing to perpetuate its system ofoccupation on our land and our people, trying to convince everyone thatAlgeria is French. That is why each of our attacks, each of our ambushes,each of our lives sacrificed must serve to unmask France before the world, toshow that our people are at war against a foreign power occupying us byforce.” This image shows the day after Zohra's arrest. Not pictured is her comrade Saadi Yacef whowas arrested with her. Claude Vignal/ECPAD/Défense/September 24th, 1957

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I was born on a Sunday, on 28 May 1940, into a family that included two boys older thanme, one 12 and one 8. Today, I am 17 and in an under- ground cell, condemned to deaththree days ago. I belonged to a national terrorist organisation. I set two bombs, and tookpart in a number of attacks. I was arrested ten months ago. —Baya Hocine, first lines of her personal journal confiscated by the FrenchArmyLike other Algerians called on by the FLN to set bombs in public spaces, BayaHocine (right) and Akhror Djouher (left) were arrested for their attacks at theEl Biar Stadium in Algiers on February 10th, 1957. Baya's papers, includingdiary entries, were besieged during a search of the Barberousse Prison whereboth girls were imprisoned. French officers confiscated books, diaries, draftsof letters and defenses, and compilations of grievances. Baya was only 17, butallegedly posed a clear threat to the French army. They paid time and specialattention to her papers, typing up two complete copies and underliningcertain words and passages such as: "I am atheist and anti-racist." The two high school girls, snapped in a photo by a polish photographerworking for the French army at the time, show intensity and seriousness intheir expressions. Yet, the deeper emotional layers are more difficult to access.The shadows of their hair on the adjacent wall visually confirm an act ofbravery still on their minds - an act that speaks to the aims of the FLN:liberation from the French state in Algeria.Zygmond Michalowski/ECPAD/Défense/Arrestation des auteurs des attentats à la bombe desstades d'Alger et d'El-Biar/February 20th, 1957/ALG 57-123 R2 Baya Hocine's journal is kept at the Service Historique de La Défense (SHD) under no. 1H1246 and at the Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer (ANOM) under no. 1K/1203 (it can beconsulted under dispensation). Credit to historian Sylvie Thénault for her incredible researchon this topic.Thénault, S. (2020). Baya Hocine's Papers, Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques,46(2), 110-127. Retrieved Apr 28, 2021, fromhttps://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/historical-reflections/46/2/hrrh460207.xml

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This portrait of Kheira-Leïla Tayeb mysteriously made its journeyfrom the FLN audiovisual team to the publicly accessibleCommons in Algeria and the United States, creating anabundance of encounters with viewers outside of Algeria once alaw with a 50-year copyright protection ended. As mentionedearlier, Algeria placed protections on national materials afterIndependence was reached but did not have a formal archive forover twenty years. Initially, Algeria’s Ministry of Information andCulture instituted the Centre National des Archives in 1962, andafter a series of state sectors regulating the archive, an officialArchives Foundation was created in 1987. The prior 50-yearprotection term on the photograph of Kheira-Leïla kept her imagewithin the control of the Algerian national government who, afterhaving been robbed of other relevant cultural material when theFrench fled, kept a strict stronghold on their archives. Indeed, ifnot tied to political positions in the government, most Algerianswere denied access. In turn, many Algerians alive during the warrelied on their own micro-histories using photos, letters, and oralaccounts to preserve cultural memory. Therefore, relying on thestate, whether French or Algerian, became obsolete. By slippinginto the Commons after the protection period ended, KheiraLeïla’s image can be seen repeatedly by individuals online who are,as an example, researching women in the Algerian war. What doesit mean for a photograph to enter the world of a Google search, orfall into the grace of the world wide web?Kheira-Leïla Tayeb, before 1962 (most likely 1957), presently sourced by Wikipedia Commonsdue to the expiration of a 50-year protection enacted years after Independence by the Algeriangovernment.Attribution: "Kheira-Leïla Tayeb" by Unknown author, Wikipedia Commons is in the PublicDomain, CC0.

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Fadila helps her older sister Meriem load a gun in theautonomous zone of Constantine. They are not far fromthe Aurès mountains (سروﻻا لﺎﺒﺟ), named after theAmazigh who are indigenous to the region, where theywere born. In high school, the sisters join the ranks ofthe Association of Muslim Student Youth OfConstantine affiliated with the Algerian People's Party(PPA). After the call for a general strike organized by theFLN, they both join their ranks and begin supplyingmedical and combat supplies to the maquis, a frequentrole assigned to FLN women because of their ability togo unnoticed passing from urban to rural areas duringthe war. However, the French Army's surveillance andtracking of FLN women presents serious risks of gettingcaught. In November of 1956, Fadila is captured andimprisoned for a year. Known as 'the intellectual' amongher comrades, she briefly returns to school to finish herstudies, but upon hearing the news of Meriem's deathunder torture in 1958 just a year after this photo wastaken, she goes back to the FLN network inConstantine. In April of 1960, she is captured by theFrench from her hiding quarters in the historic WilayaII in Constantine and killed, arms in hand. Fadila Saâdane (1938-1960) helps her sister Meriem Saâdane (1932-1958) load a gun in themaquis (rural zone), 1957

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Léonec Kierzkowski/ECPAD/Autodéfense féminine de Catinat, à 12 kilomètres au sud-estd'El-Milia/March 10th, 1960/ALG 60-123 R28Glossary ALN/FLN - National Liberation Army, armed wing (Armée de libérationnationale), National Liberation Front (Front de libération nationale)fidayate - women urban fighters, often bombersévolué - educated and 'westernized' Muslim personfellagha - rebel fighterhaik - long over-gown of light material used to provide total body cover andveiling (often white material in Algeria)harki - common name for an indigenous unit attached to the French armymaquis - the mainly rural or mountainous zones of combatmoudjahidate - women fighters attached to ALN/FLN units in the interiormousselbilate - women militants, mainly peasants, engaged in domesticsupport for ALN/FLN unitspieds-noirs - common name for European settlers in Algeria, 'blackfeet'wilaya - neighborhood, administrative zones of the FLN

Stories in a Snapshot

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