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 A Book Review of Inside the Battle of Algiers, by
Zohra Drif: A Thematic Analysis on Women’s
Agency
W. Zekri

invite the colonizer to the negotiating table. As a result of nine

Abstract—This paper explores Zohra Drif’s memoir, Inside the years of continuous violence shared by two powers, the French
Battle of Algiers, which narrates her desires as a student to become a military and the National Algerian Army (ALN), the war ended
revolutionary activist. She exemplified, in her narrative, the different with negotiations and independence was realized.
roles, she and her fellows performed as combatants in the Casbah
during the Algerian Revolution 1954-1962. This book review aims to
evaluate the concept of women’s agency through education and II. CONTENT OF THE BOOK
language learning, and its impact on empowering women’s desires. This autobiography is a testimony to Zohra’s revolutionary
Close-reading method and thematic analysis are used to explore the experience in depth. She thrived to tackle the Algerian struggle
text. The analysis identified themes that refine the meaning of agency
against the French colony from 1954 to 1962. She also showed,
which are social and cultural supports, education, and language
proficiency. These themes aim to contribute to the representation in through the narrative of the story, how she had developed a
Inside the Battle of Algiers of a woman guerrilla who engaged herself sense of activism from an early age. Zohra is known by her
to perform national acts of resistance. devotion to the Algerian revolution and her conduct of
operations that attracted the attention of the international
Keywords—Agency, education, learning, women. community.
The title of her book Inside the Battle of Algiers was featured
I. INTRODUCTION in the movie of The Battle of Algiers (1966) by the Italian

T HIS review is about Zohra Drif’s book entitled Memoir of

a Woman Freedom Fighter: Inside the Battle of Algiers.
Zohra is born in 1934 in Tiaret, a city situated in the west part
director Gillo Pontecorvo. The film was co-produced by Jean
Martin and Saadi Yacef, who was a leader of the National
Liberation Front (FLN) movement of the Autonomous Zone,
of Algeria. She was a Law student at the University of Algiers. Algiers. The FLN was created in 1954, and unified the different
She conducted several revolutionary acts. This book is an political tendencies during the war of liberation with the aim of
autobiography of her life in which she used the first pronoun ‘I’ achieving independence.
to portray her story. She published this book in French in 2013; Although this movie received worldwide recognition, this
then, it was translated into English by Andrew Farrand and book represents its events from a feminist point of view. By
published in 2017. this, there was a focus on representing the myriad ways of male,
This book is worth being published, as it tells a story of two female and adolescent participation in the revolution, and how
young educated women, Zohra and Samia, who sacrificed their women played equal roles to men in the war of liberation. The
lives for the Algerian cause of independence, and gained the book is broken down into nine parts which chronologically fit
honor to be known as volunteers of death. Zohra demonstrated the purpose of the story. Each part of the book discusses one
how their strong faith and their determined wills to free topic, including Zohra’s role in the events which are presented
themselves and the people of the country had reinforced their chronologically. She illustrated her narrative with photos of the
activism. Women’s activists were called in Arabic, El revolutionaries and with the dialogues she had with some of
Mujahidat, which refers to women as resistance fighters. them.
In the text, education was presented as an aspect that raised
Zohra’s and Samia’s national consciousness. However, there III. SUMMARY OF THE BOOK
were other women who had not been fortunate enough to have
A. Part One
access to education; however, one aspect they all shared was
their notion of patriotism. Events in the text were presented In part one, Zohra showed that her family supported her
from a sociological understanding in order to exemplify the education and allowed her to pursue her university studies. She
omnipresent fear of the ‘the colonizer’, which intensified the was fortunate to receive a French education from the age of six,
sense of patriotism and yearning for unification. Aspect which as her father was a judge, desired her to become an educated
motivated Zohra to write this book was that she was accused of woman. Thus, in class, she found that she was the only Muslim
killing European civilians in the Milk Bar Café. The Milk Bar girl surrounded by European and French pupils. She recognized
Café was one of the targets where Zohra planted a bomb during that school was a different place from her cultural and linguistic
the war of revolution. Now, Zohra is convinced that violence backgrounds. At school, she developed a national
and bombs were the only options that could cease the war, and consciousness that Algeria belonged only to Algerians.
Therefore, her investment in the revolution was inspired by the capital, where the majority of residents were Europeans living
events she witnessed at primary school and later in secondary under the protection of the French army. Descriptions of how
school. Zohra, Samia and Djamila prepared themselves prior to placing
the bombs were particularly expressive and engage the reader
B. Part Two
to continue reading the story to its end. After the bombing
The second part showed Zohra’s internal attitudes towards event, these three women gained the status of Mujahidat.
educational success that she wanted to achieve to be able to
identify her culture to the colonizer. She said, “I am not and will E. Part Five
never be you; you are not and will never be me” [1: 36]. She In this part, Zohra narrated how she hid in private homes of
met her friend Samia Lakhdari; they studied together and La Casbah, and continued her acts as a courier, along with
attended their university course in Law, and then became Hassiba Ben Bouali and Djamila Amrane. In describing their
prominent ALN fighters. move between these houses, Zohra was amazed by the flavors
of the hand-made sweets and food presented to them by the
C. Part Three
women hosted them. In addition, she described their traditional
In this part, Zohra described the change in the social ways of living, their weekly visit to the Hammam (Turkish
behaviors and perceptions of the colonized people. During the bath). She expressed how well they were treated by their hosts,
outbreak of the revolution in the 1st of November 1954, people who also overwhelmed them with prayers. This part told of the
rebelled against the colonizer. In 1955, violence increased from Mujahidats’ persistence to continue their acts challenging the
both the French militants and the ALN group. The colonizer French police.
undertook different types of punishments to control the
rebellions, who were also known as the Novembristes (referring F. Part Six
to those who organized the outbreak of the war of liberation). This part displayed her conversation with Larbi Ben Mhidi
For instance, people of Constantine city had firmly believed that (one of the leaders during the revolution) about the similar roles
it was “Better to die fighting, than to die for nothing” [1: 56] women had to men in the revolution. She argued that all fighters
Ultimately, Zohra met Boualem Oussedik (an ALN leader honored their lives to gain independence, as well as many
during the war of independence) at university. She told him that Algerian families offered their homes to feed, treat and hide
“…as students, it is our duty to invest ourselves in the national revolutionaries such as Bouhired’s family. However, the war
activities such as army…” [1: 61]. Boualem carefully listened started to draw back as most of the planted bombs failed to
to her; then replied “which movement would you like to fight explode. Besides, a number of revolutionaries were arrested and
with; the National Algerian Movement, the FLN, or the Parti tortured to death. In response, the revolutionaries sought to gain
Communiste Algérien”. She replied: “if I say FLN, could you international recognition of the national cause.
put me in touch with them?” After that meeting, Zohra and
G. Part Seven
Samia together began their first mission wearing the Haik,
which Zohra defined as “classic veil of Algiers”. The Haik In this part, Zohra explained the purpose of the Eight-Day
covers women from their heads to calves. Both Zohra and Strike which revealed the anguish of the Algerian people. Due
Samina wore haik in their mission to appear similar to the to the unity of the people, the United Nations acknowledged the
women of Belcourt (a city near the capital), so they would not Algerian cause, and the FLN became a legitimate organism.
be recognized as foreigners. In this mission, they transmitted H. Part Eight
solidarity allowances to the FLN’s families whose husbands or In this part, Zohra recounted the subsequent missions she had
children were missing, killed or executed. This part summed up with Djamila Bouhired, and how Djamila’s arrest had raised a
how they found a link to join the FLN, and how they began their worldwide consciousness about the injustice that the colonized
first missions of carrying packages from one place to another. people witnessed. The arrest of Bouhired and the escalated
This was the beginning of Zohra’s and Samia’s journeys, taking crimes accelerated the activism of Yacef Saadi, Ali La Point,
into account the example of the martyr Zabana, who wrote to Hassiba and Zohra.
his mother: “I am not dying for nothing, and thus, I am not
really dying at all” [1: 93]. Zohra and Samia continued their I. Part Nine
goals consolidated with different acts. This part is the last section of the book. It told about the
D. Part Four dissolve of the Autonomous Zone, the arrest of the Algerian
guerrilla leader Yacef Saadi and Zohra. She expressed her
This part covered Zohra and Samia as ALN fighters recruited sorrow on the loss of Ali La Point and Hassiba Ben Bouali who
as volunteers for death. They met with prominent figures of the were bombed within their place.
revolution such as Djamila Bouhired, Ali La Point and Yacef
Saadi. The role of Le petit Mourad (small Mourad) also IV. BOOK ANALYSIS
appeared as an example of teenagers’ participation in acts of
resistance such as delivering reports between the El Fida’iyn Zohra Drif’s book entitled Memoir of a Woman Freedom
(urban bombers). Zohra argued that it was time to react against Fighter: Inside the Battle of Algiers, contributed to the
the violence perpetrated against Muslims in the mountains. She contemporary definitions of the concept of agency in
insisted on bringing the rural war into urban cities, such as the postcolonial studies. This analysis on this book discusses three
emerging themes to explain women’s agency during the However, others are in favor to render space for agency and
Algerian war of liberation. These themes are: social/ cultural the inclusion of the subject in the political discourse [6].
aspects, education and language learning which have relatively Therefore, agency in postcolonial theories encountered issues.
empowered Zohra’s identity, and led her to become a national First, it focused on the political power of the colonizer within,
guerrilla. She demonstrated how education and the literary which produced a deceitful political practice due to the lack of
books she read about the French civilization had helped her to the value of arguments in the colonial discourse. Second,
construct her own reflections about power and the possibility of agency was entangled with the definition of power in colonial
fighting the colonizer. For this, thematic analysis was used and postcolonial theories. Third, it also has not been deeply
along with close reading to find the main key words from the discussed [6]. The critics of agency in the postcolonial theory
text. This paper reflected on the textual details, and it also had brought a highlight to the poststructuralist theory to trigger
focused on passages where the author’s voice was explicitly new interpretations to the concept of agency in the social
showed through the personal pronoun ‘I’. Extracts from the text theory. Butler [7] argued that discussing human agency can
were used to formulate arguments about the themes. Several provide an explanation to political agency which is not
references were used to discuss these themes in relevance to constrained to cases of subordinations. This claim had
other theories. expanded the meaning of agency in relation to many other areas
such as education and sociology. Poststructuralist theories
A. Overview of the Concept of Agency
regard agency as fragmented and discontinuous [8]. According
Human agency is defined as a dynamic process which can to Davies [8], agency is about ‘making choices’ and this places
cause change into the structure of the social context. Agents as the subject to take action.
doers of the action communicate their past social habits, they Contemporary research on agency explained that
reflect on their choices, and then they take actions to realize individual’s agency is structured by discourse. Discourse is
them. Agents’ desires reinforce them to shape the social social and based on individuals’ interactions through language.
practices through imagining a new practice. Although the book Thus, individuals construct their identities in social contexts
accounts a colonial experience, this paper provides an analytical when they interact with each other. Nevertheless, the
summary of the concept of agency from a postcolonial stand poststructuralist theory regards individuals’ identities
point. It also explains the relationship between individuals’ fragmented and discontinuous [8]. Nevertheless, individuals’
agency and language in achieving their goals from a desires of changing their statuses in the social institution can
poststructuralist perspective. lead them to position themselves differently, and this can be
It is essential to consider the relationship between power and applied to a colonial context since language creates individuals’
desire before explaining how agency emerges as a social action purposes, and not their use of language which enables them to
[2]. The relationship between agency and power is postcolonial, achieve them [9].
as according to Foucault [3], the theory of desire does not give According to Fanon [10], colonized people had a national
a priority to who is the master, and it does not exclude the other. consciousness which embodied their desires to retrieve their
Foucault’s theory of power views that agents have the ability to national culture that was different from the colonizer’s imposed
be productive and transformative [4]. Bignal [2] used Deleuze’s culture. Fanon [10] defines “The native is an oppressed person
interpretation of the ‘will to power’ as a constructive principle whose permanent dream is to become the persecutor”. The
which organizes relations between two forces - the dominant persecution and oppression that natives experienced, had
and the dominated. These forces have an unequal power which reinforce their imagination of the possible methods to defeat the
then constructs one political body [2]. Foucault [3] defines colonizer. Their imagination was indeed based on action [10].
power as a political relation between two forces. However, Said The poststructuralist’s agency is significant to El Mujahidats’
[5] criticized Foucault’s analysis of the representation of these actions revealed in Zohra’s book.
two power forces as being inequivalent. He argued that one B. Agency Supported with Social and Cultural Aspects
body had more control over the other; to mean that in a colonial
This theme looked at how the social background supported
context, it was always the colonizer who had more power than
individuals’ directions in life. In an interview in Columbia
the colonized. This claim constructed a critique on the
University published on YouTube [11], Zohra said that mothers
postcolonial theory, as it raised a controversial stance in sharing
taught their children about their identity and that Algeria was
the role of the subject’s power in discourse. Feminist’s
occupied by a colonizer. Zohra’s claim is linked to the feminist
interpretations of Foucault’s power argued that it lacked a
point of view. McLeod [12] explained six categories that
clarification of how an individual’s agency is constructed, as
identify the role of women in a nationalist literature. Three
the subject can be dominated by this power, and the same
categories are selected from this model to discuss the status of
subject can also take a position through power [4]. Then, Allen
Algerian women during the revolution. The first category is
[4] views that the concept of agency is paradoxical. He
women as transmitters of culture: women are deemed to be the
questions when the subject can be suppressed by power
primary source of information to their children and responsible
relations, and when the same subject can have the ability to act
for introducing them to the heritage and traditions of their
upon this power.
country. The second category is the role of women as signifiers
of national differences. Due to the effects of transmitting the
national culture, women gain experiences that enable them to
contribute to anti-colonial nationalism, they then become and allure and perfect mastery of the French language” [1:48].
subjects of nationalism. The third category is women as Language had a significant role in reinforcing the agency of
participants in national, economic, political and military these combatants (Samia, Zohra and Djamila). According to
struggles. These categories are put to elucidate the roles that Mazrui [12], “European languages served the ends of
women played in the revolution a similar way to men. colonialism”. French was implied through education to
In the same vein, Zohra illustrated that her family was the assimilate Algerians to become French. However, the mastery
primary input from which she knew about her origins. She of language was used in the Algerian case as a weapon of
explained that even though she lived in a patriarchal society struggle in the war of liberation [13].
within which women played perfectly their domestic roles, her To sum up, these analyses demonstrate that although the
parents were different and they supported her education. society was patriarchal-based, in the army (ALN), however,
Besides, they allowed her to travel to Algiers to pursue her men and women played similar roles. To illustrate, in an
studies in Law at the University of Algiers. She felt responsible interview in Columbia University published on YouTube [11],
for maintaining her parents’ trust, and for being a role model Zohra mentioned: “Without women, it was hard to guide,
for other girls from her village. She expressed that “I was women transmitted arms and fed members of the FLN”. Zohra’s
carrying the immense hopes that came along with this combat agency was depicted from the goals she set during her early
in service of all our girls” [1: 13]. school years, and which she later developed at university when
she eventually became a revolutionary. She presented herself
C. Agency Supported with Education
and other comrades as women of determination. In the
During her primary school years, Zohra discovered that she narrative, the roles that women played were varied, for
was surrounded by two different understandings. She said: “At example, they hid the guerrillas and they treated their wounds.
school, I was taught a language which differed from my They planted bombs. These roles enabled them to reach equal
language, and a history which was not similar to which I was status with men as they performed similar duties.
recounted at home” [11]. “I had friends at school for five years,
and what awakened me is the remarkable event I had with my V. CRITICAL EVALUATION
friend Roselyne who failed in her exam, while I succeeded”
This book has an informative aim; it accounts how Zohra was
[11]. She explained that she attempted to comfort her friend,
raised and how she developed a national consciousness from an
however, Roselyne replied: “You understand nothing, my
early age. This memoir is a relevant source for curriculum
mother will never understand that an indigene received a higher
designers to raise students’ awareness about the perseverance
average than her daughter”, to which Zohra responded by
of Algerian women in the revolutionary period. Zohra
asking her to inform her mother that “The Arabs were the ones
emphasized on depicting two main roles of women; women
who invented Mathematics” [1:9]. This event made her think
who had agency to organize and even to bomb European places,
that she was perceived differently by the other (the colonizer).
and women who were vulnerable to violence (rape and torture).
This example illustrated how Zohra developed her national
These two representations of women could be added to enrich
consciousness at school. Another example was accounted from
knowledge of Third World women’s literature.
other events she had experienced at secondary school. She said:
There is a sense of enthusiasm in reading the events which
“The deep sense of injustice stirred in me by the teachers who
were chronologically told, and exemplified with a detailed
treated me differently simply because I was a ‘native’ girl, and
description of time, place and characters. Readers of pages
the ludicrous attacks from my peers, helped me make a rebel
[1:117-129] feel engrossed to follow the successive events
earlier than my time” [1:26]. There were several sections in the
drawn as a plot of the narrative. The extensive use of descriptive
text that illustrated that Zohra’s agency to fight was
language put the reader into different positions, such as feeling
accumulated due to the events of discrimination she
of pride about the characters’ acts, the reader can feel the danger
experienced at school. These events had empowered her to
that these characters were put through, and then they feel relief
invest in her studies in order to pass her baccalaureate exam,
when they come to the end of the plot. There was a focus on the
and to join university.
social, as well as the communal sharing between members of
D. Agency supported with Language Proficiency the family. There were several sub-plots in the narrative of the
The relationship between agency and language has a focal whole story. The conversations between characters were very
point in the poststructuralist theory (as mentioned above). This realistic, and this could enable the reader to understand details
theme was supported by Zohra’s investment in learning the of the story. Every prominent name of the FLN was identified
colonizer’s language, which was itself a performance of in the text with no prior signposting.
resistance [10]. She expressed that: “As students, it is our duty There were also few points that would make this book more
to invest ourselves in the national activities such as army” enjoyable and culturally informative. It is assumed that the
[1:61]. Thus, Zohra had a language ability to mimic the French author used a significant description of food and meal times that
accent in the police checkpoints. As Fanon [12] in Black Skin, they had in houses of La Casbah. These notable descriptions
White Masks argues, language gives natives a social authority might distract the reader’s focus on the event instead. More
and allows them to demonstrate their master of the colonizer’s photos could be added in the book to illustrate some of the
culture. Zohra said: “We were both women with a European air remarkable events. The French copy of the book was 608 pages,
longer than the usual length of an autobiography. Some words
that were used in Arabic dialect were not translated into
English, and also are not explained in the footnote, like barham
[1:262].

VI. CONCLUSION
In Zohra Drif’s book entitled Memoir of a Woman Freedom
Fighter: Inside the Battle of Algiers, the author encompassed
her story with other brave fighters: Samia, Djamila, Le Petit
Mourad, and Yacef. In many occasions, Zohra justified her
bombing of the busy Milk Bar café as a reaction to the massive
destruction and murder that occurred in La Casbah on August
9th, followed by another bombing at La Rue Thebes on August
10th, 1955. This book reminds everyone living under
subordination and an unpredictable future that they need to
reflect upon the conditions they live through and take action.
The author’s decision to share her personal experience gives a
voice to those women who died in the war, and also to those
who are unable to write their stories. Vince [14] argued that
there is an absence of women in the written works of Algerian
history. This book adds knowledge of Algerian women from an
educated former combatant’s experience.

REFERENCES
[1] Z. Drif, Inside the Battle of Algiers. CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Platform. 2017
[2] S. Bignal, Postcolonial Agency Critique and Constructivism. Edinburgh
University, 2010.
[3] M. Foucault, Subject and Power. Critical Inquiry, vol. 8, 1982, pp. 777–
795.
[4] A. Allen, The Power of Feminist Theory, 1st Edition. New York:
Routledge, 1998.
[5] E. Said, The word, the Text, and the Critic. Harvard University Press,
1983.
[6] O. George, Relocating Agency: Modernity and African Letters. SUNY
Press, 2012.
[7] J. Butler, Gender Trouble and the Subversion of Identity. New York and
London: Routledge, 1990.
[8] B. Davies, "The Concept of Agency: A feminist poststructuralist
analysis". Social analysis: the International Journal of Social and Cultural
Practice. Vol.30, pp. 42-53, 1991.
[9] S. Carle, "Theorizing Agency". American University Law Review, Vol.
55, no.2, pp. 307-387, December. 2005.
[10] F. Fanon, J. P. Sartre, and C. Farrington. The Wretched of the Earth. New
York: Grove Press. Vol. 36, p. 53, 1963.
[11] Z. Drif, Just World: Zohra Drif, Algeria's National Liberation Heroine
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baQP-miDyPE 18
February 2018.
[12] J. McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism, 2nd edition. Manchester
University Press. P. 138, 2010.
[13] A. Mazrui. Language and the Quest for Liberation in Africa: the Legacy
of Frantz Fanon, Third World Quartly. Vol. 14. N2, 1993.
[14] N. Vince, Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory, and Gender in Algeria,
1954-2012. Manchester University Press, 2015.

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