The Third World Woman is a symbol and purveyor of resistance. Resistance occurs in a variety of contexts, like the backdrop of a national revolution; a perfect example of this is Algeria. “Algeria Unveiled” by Franz Fanon and “Women of Algiers in Their Apartments” by Assia Djebar collectively represent a complex narrative of the lives of Algerian women during and after the revolution, and the different ways in which these women enacted resistance. By examining the nuanced portrayals of the Algerian woman’s resistance in these texts, I hope to build a comprehensive analysis of what resistance looked like for the Third World Women in Algeria.
In Algeria Unveiled, Fanon follows the Algerian revolution against the colonial power of France, specifically highlighting the perception of women during this time and their role in the revolution. Fanon explores how a national anti-colonialist revolution led to all of Algerian society being mobilized, and gender roles being overturned, thus making it a ripe space for transformation and change. A fight for the nation triggers a fight for the women, by the women- especially since women are disproportionately affected in national conflict- and Fannon portrays how women became central to the narratives of colonization as well as resistance.
Fanon examines the construction of female identity within Algerian society, and the colonial view of Algerian women. He describes the colonial view as “we must, first of all, conquer the women, we must go and find them behind the veil where they hide themselves and in the houses where the men keep them out of sight…”(Fanon, pg. 38). The Algerian woman was viewed as submissive, cloistered, sequestered: a woman unseen. She is the property of the man that keeps her out of sight. A woman to be conquered, rather than a woman with the power to herself conquer and resist. The idea that the Algerian woman could see and exist, without being seen or perceived herself, allowed her to navigate the waters of the revolution without the colonizers perceiving the women as a threat. Fanon describes how “carrying revolvers, grenades, hundreds of false identity cards and bombs, the unveiled Algerian woman moves like a fish in the western waters. The soldiers of the French patrol smile to her as she passes, compliments on her looks are heard here and there, but no one suspects that her suitcase contains the automatic pistol which will presently mow down 405 members of one of the patrols” (Fanon, pg. 58). The once sequestered, humiliated, invisible, Algerian woman has used her invisibility as a weapon to conduct covert revolutionary operations, working to use her suppressed status to her advantage. In a sense, the Algerian woman’s covert subversion of gender roles is emblematic of how Third World Women work within oppressive systems, enacting resistance through wielding the rhetoric and ideas that seek to oppress them to their benefit.
In Women of Algiers in Their Apartment, Djebar weaves a fictional story of women whose lives overlap in the aftermath of the revolution. These women stand in solidarity with one another, reckoning with the past revolution and their position as women in Algerian society at present. In contrast to Fanon’s perspective of the revolution as a period of empowerment and inspiration for women, Djebar reframes the revolutionary story that Fanon tells, describing it as a period of partial victory, loss, and suffering. The different nuances in these texts are important to comprehensively interpret the Algerian woman and her modes of resistance, thus building an overall understanding of the Third World Woman’s resistance.
Djebar’s fictional story has an ensemble cast of women and families, but two central characters are Sarah, an Algerian woman who spent time in prison after the revolution, and Anne, a white French woman. Sarah and Anne’s relationship represents the solidarity among women in post-revolution Algeria, and Djebar highlights how women used conversation and community as a form of resistance. Sarah herself states in the text, “For Arabic women, I see only one single way to unblock everything talk. Talk without stopping about yesterday and today talk among ourselves in all the women's quarters the traditional ones as well as those in the housing projects talk among ourselves and look.” (Djebar, pg. 50). In the post-revolutionary era, Algerian women have put down their weapons and are rather reflecting on their experiences, their loss, and finding solidarity amongst one another through conversation. Central to these conversations is the aspect of consciousness-raising: how it is essential for women to really look at and recognize the struggles they are facing to enact resistance. We see such a conversation happening between Anne and Sarah when Sarah reflects upon how Algerian women have to make the transition in the post-revolution period, and Anne asks Sarah what her time in prison was like (Djebar, pg. 47). Djebar also recontextualizes what the revolutionary experience was like for Algerian women, providing nuance to Fanon’s previous account. In a conversation between the songstress Leila and Sarah, a new picture of the revolution is painted: “In the streets, they were taking pictures of your unclothed bodies, of your avenging arms in front of the tanks. We suffered the pain of your legs torn apart by the rapist soldiers and it is thus that the sanctioned poets evoked you in lyrical diwans” (Djebar, pg. 44). The stark imagery that Djebar invokes with her lyrical writing is one of female suffering and pain. On one hand, Fanon reflects a rather empowering or transformative period for Algerian women during the revolution. Dejabr instead shows the trauma, violence, and conflict women faced during the national revolution, as it is always women who are more disproportionately caught in the throes of conflict. Furthermore, Djebar highlights the lineage of resistance, oppression, and revolution that Algerian women, and Third World Women at large, have to reckon with. Sarah reflects upon her time in prison, thinking of the “strange city drunk with the sun but with prisons high up on every street. Does every woman live first for herself or for the chain of women once locked in generation after generation, while the same light, an unchangeable rarely dim blue continues to pour forth” (Djebar, pg. 48). Once again, Djebar uses ripe imagery of the prison to help her readers truly envision the sense of imprisonment, the sense of having no agency. Even after the revolution, the women of Algeria are left to reckon with the generations of trauma and violence they have faced; they are left to remember the women who fought before them, and the women who will inevitably fight after them. The image of the prison, the women sequestered behind bars, is parallel to Fanon’s image of the sequestered Algerian woman. The notion of imprisonment transcends the revolutionary period for Algerian women, who have had to fight to get out on the streets and be seen in their own right. Weaving a vivid, emotional story of the intersecting lives of Algerian women, Djebar emphasizes the importance of solidarity after a period of conflict and violence, and how continuing to have conversations about their lives, their struggles, and the state of the Algerian woman is essential to their liberation. Solidarity amongst women, community, and consciousness-raising conversations are integral to Third World Woman resistances across the Global South.
Another factor that makes Fanon and Dejbar’s accounts of resistance and revolution different is their writing style and form. Fanon writes a historical account of the Algerian Revolution and the resistance of women within that realm. Djebar writes to highlight the Algerian woman's emotions, struggles, and relationships during and after the revolution. The literary style Djebar uses promotes empathy in the reader and allows us to truly experience what it meant to resist and exist as a Third World Algerian woman in a post-revolutionary context. While Fanon writes in an academic style to depict the transformation of gender roles and the resistance of Algerian women during the revolution, Djebar provides more complexity by using storytelling and imagery to convey how the revolutionary period was still ripe with violence and oppression for the Algerian woman. In a sense, Fanon and Djebar complement each other to build a multidimensional analysis of female resistance in Algeria. Fanon answers the question of how Third World Women resist against the backdrop of a revolution for national liberation, while Djebar emphasizes the role of solidarity, community, and conversation as it relates to resistance and survival for the Algerian woman.
For the Third World Woman, there is no singular way to enact resistance. Fanon and Djebar provide unique yet equally important portrayals of revolutionary resistance and conversational, solidarity-oriented resistance. A Third World Woman's Resistance is transformative, fluid, and dynamic. How this resistance is acted out, and how it is felt, depends on various factors like geopolitics, the history of a nation, and the period of time. The Algerian Revolution was monumental for the entire nation. It was a period of change and resistance, especially resistance by Algerian women. The post-revolutionary period left these women reckoning with the lineage of both their resistance and their suffering, finding solidarity and continuing resistance through conversation and community. Examining the nuances of female resistance during and after the Algerian revolutionary period helps us build a comprehensive understanding of how Third World Women across the world resist in a variety of ways.