Djamila Boupacha

A searing denunciation of French torture in Algeria by a classic feminist intellect

In 1960, as the Algerian War for Independence entered its sixth year, 22-year-old Djamila Boupacha was arrested for allegedly planting a bomb in a university cafeteria. While in custody, she was tortured and raped by French soldiers. Her case would have been buried like countless others had it not been for the efforts of her lawyer, Gisèle Halimi, and the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir to transform it into an international cause célèbre. Djamila Boupacha is the culmination of this campaign to expose the systemic violence of colonial rule. “To protest in the name of morality against ‘excesses’ or ‘abuses,’” Beauvoir writes, “is an error which hints at active complicity. There are no ‘abuses’ or ‘excesses’ here, simply an all-pervasive system.”

More than a historical document, the book is a profound exploration of morality, complicity and resistance. A classic text of anticolonialism, this is a story that demands to be read—and remembered.