Unveiling In Algeria

For the French colonizers, the veil was a physical manifestation of the backwardness of Algerian culture and the perceived male tyranny and female subjugation prevalent in society. So, in order to emancipate women, it was vital to first unveil them – this is known as military feminism (Amrane-Minne, 62). The colonizers implemented this strategy through demeaning and humiliating public unveiling ceremonies. French colonizers believed unveiling Algerian women symbolically established French power.
French, unveiling expressed the willingness to give up Algerian identity and change Algerian habits under the control of French occupation. It also symbolized a French victory over Algerian society from one end of the colonial period to the other. …show more content…
The most demeaning was public unveiling ceremonies where women had their veils forcefully ripped off by French soldiers who chanted pro-colonialist slogans such as “Vive l’Algérie française!” An infamous example of this is publically de-veiled of a hundred Algerian women on May 13, 1858 at a public square in Algeria’s capital (Bullock, 93). It also took the form of forced unveiling for the purpose of identification. Marc Granger, a French photographer composed Algerian national identity cards and took pictures of Algerian women who were forced to take off their