Colonial doctrine treated conquering women as the key to destroying Algerian resistance

Evidence

This enabled the colonial administration to define a precise political doctrine: “If we want to destroy the structure of Algerian society, its capacity for resistance, 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.” It is the situation of woman that was accordingly taken as the theme of action. The dominant administration solemnly undertook to defend this woman, pictured as humiliated, sequestered, cloistered … — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 133

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to later feminist analyses of how imperial powers used the ‘protection of women’ as pretext — parallels Spivak’s ‘white men saving brown women from brown men.’ — connects to: Algerian revolutionary leaders knew captured women would be tortured to death; Algerian women’s seclusion made them core vehicles of anti-colonial resistance — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1230; Colonial violence itself, not just revolutionary solidarity, reshaped Algerian feminine society — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 385 (+4 more)

Related

• Algerian women’s traditional seclusion made them the hardest nucleus of anti-colonial resistance (similarity 0.92)
• Algerian revolutionary leaders knew captured women would be tortured to death (similarity 0.88)
• Colonial violence forced Algerian leaders to adopt women as combatants (similarity 0.88)
• Winning over women gave colonial power over men and destructured culture (similarity 0.87)
• Colonial violence itself, not just revolutionary solidarity, reshaped Algerian feminine society (similarity 0.87)
• Algerian women’s seclusion made them core vehicles of anti-colonial resistance (similarity 0.86)
• The unveiled Algerian woman functioned as an essential operative in the revolutionary network. (similarity 0.85)
• Colonial confinement degraded Algerian women’s bodily mobility and assurance (similarity 0.84)
• Colonial administration targeted starving women first with anti-veil propaganda. (similarity 0.84)
• National liberation opened up new roles for Algerian women (similarity 0.84)
• Algerian women’s militant action exceeded the resistance-fighter comparison (similarity 0.83)
• Algerian women’s confinement to the home was a conscious technique of struggle (similarity 0.83)
• Algerian liberation struggle itself forged new gender values preceding independence (similarity 0.83)
• Militant women replaced marriageable women as aspirational models in Algeria (similarity 0.83)
• Making the Revolution depend on women’s action was a wholly revolutionary step (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Winning over women gave colonial power over men and destructured culture #expands (0.85) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 135