Djamila Boupacha

Djamila Boupacha (9 February 1938, Bologhine -) is a former militant from the Algerian National Liberation Front. She was arrested in 1960 for an attempted attack in Algiers. Her confessions, which were obtained under torture and rape, changed the opinion of a media trial about the methods used by the French army in Algeria, with the help of Simone de Beauvoir and Gisèle Halimi. Sentenced to death on June 28, 1961, Boupacha was given amnesty under the Evian accords and freed on April 21, 1962.

Early life

Djamila Boupacha was born on 9 February 1938 in Bologhine, a suburb of Algiers.

Algerian War

Arrest and torture

Early in the Algerian War, Boupacha worked as a trainee at Béni Messous Hospital but was prevented from taking a certificate in training because of her race and religion.[1]

On 10 February 1960, French troops razed Boubacha's family household and arrested her and her family, taking them to a military barracks at El Biar where they were tortured and interrogated.[1] Boupacha was later transferred and tortured at the prison of Hussein Dey, including brutal sexual violence.[1][2] Under torture, Boupacha confessed to planting a bomb at a University restaurant on 27 September 1959.[1][2]

Torture was common for women who were arrested, and rape was systematically used to terrorize and shame the Algerian community. The importance of Boupacha's case lies in her decision to bring a suit against her torturers. Though she did not deny her affiliation with the FLN and her commitment to Algerian independence, she did argue that a confession achieved under torture should not be admissible before the military tribunal that was to try her. French officials in Algeria also hindered Boupacha's access to legal representation, denying Halimi's visas that aligned with Boupacha's court dates.[3]

Trial

Working with French Tunisian lawyer Gisèle Halimi, Boupacha brought her torture case to trial, causing a scandal in France and Algeria and gaining wide public attention as well as support of prominent artists and intellectuals such as Simone de Beauvoir, Henri Alleg, André Philip, and Pablo Picasso.[2]

Boupacha's violated virginity, her physical and metaphorical purity, became a point of intense focus in the court case as well as the case that was made before the public. The practices of sexual humiliation were already known to the public, Boupacha's case brought to light the extent to which the army would go to protect her torturers from prosecution.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Kunkle, Ryan (2013). ""We Must Shout the Truth to the Rooftops:" Gisèle Halimi, Djamila Boupacha, and Sexual Politics in the Algerian War of Independence". Iowa Historical Review 4 (1).
  2. 1 2 3 Simone de Beauvoir and Gisèle Halimi, Djamila Boupacha: The Story of the Torture of a Young Algerian Girl Which Shocked Liberal French Opinion (London: André Deutsch, Weidenfeld, and Nicolson, 1962).
  3. 1 2 Surkis, Judith (Summer 2010). "ETHICS AND VIOLENCE Simone de Beauvoir, Djamila Boupacha, and the Algerian War". French Politics, Culture & Society 28 (2). line feed character in |title= at position 20 (help)

Further reading

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