From Fantasy To Fear: The Politics Of Veil During The Algerian War Of Independence

Abstract

Women bodies have been the site of contestation and struggle in the colonial ventures. This research article aims to discuss the opaque veil erected as a barrier between the bodies of Algerian women and French colonizers’ gaze. Rather than being an object to be seen and observed by French men, the veiled women ‘See, without being seen’. Thus, the veil evaded power dynamics between colonized and colonizers. By doing a literature search of French colonial rule in Algeria (1830-1962), this paper explores the significance of the veil by comprehending the processes of veiling, unveiling and re-veiling of the Algerian women during the c[1]olonial rule in Algeria. Drawing the theoretical framework from the works of Malek Alloula and Timothy Mitchell, this essay also examines different paradoxes associated with the veil in Algeria. This essay analyses the drastic change in the French perception of the veiled Algerian women from the erotic towards a new emphasis on the veiled Algerian women as a symbol of political danger. This paper also explores how this new political role gave the veiled Algerian women agency to act during French colonial rule in Algeria and how veiling became a symbol of colonial resistance.