The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.7           February 17, 1997 
 
 
Letters  
 Women in Algeria
Like last year, the women of "Tighri-n-tmettut" (The Cry of the Woman) openly celebrated the anniversary of the assassination of the president of their association, despite the insecurity and the persecutions of which militant women are victims. It was two years ago that our dear and mourned comrade Nabila fell. "The Woman of Liberty," who made struggle the central task of her life, was assassinated on Feb. 15, 1995, by a group of individuals who hadn't given her any chance. They shot her point blank with the two bullets that killed her, one at the nape of the neck and another at the abdomen. It happened at Tizi-ouzou, a town that had adopted her at the young age of 20 years. A town where she had crisscrossed all the streets and haunted all the conference rooms to transmit the message of equality, liberty, justice, and tolerance. A town that saw her die in silence at the age of 31.

Nabila Djahnine, native of Béjaia, enrolled in the University of Tizi-ouzou in the 1980s, where she took on the study of architecture. Upon beginning her courses, she joined the town's "Women's Collective" while remaining a member of the City Committee of Young Militant Women of the Socialist Workers Party (PST). She also helped organize the second training center of the Bérbe're Cultural Movement (MCB), who struggle for recognition of their language, culture, and the Bérbe're identity.

Being an eternal rebel, she took part in many other struggles, such as the creation of the National Union of Algerian Students - Autonomy and Democracy (SNEA-AD), of which she was a founding member.

In her final years, Nabila devoted herself to the activities of the "Tighri-n-tmettut" association, of which she was president from its creation in 1989 until her death. The association was a point of attraction for all the women of the area, a framework which permitted them to find themselves, to express themselves, to organize themselves, and to struggle. The women of the association organized many activities: conferences, debates, expositions, propaganda... and all their activities moved towards the consciousness-raising of women. They also led a campaign for the spacing of births and contraception.

Nabila administered and led all the activities and campaigns of the association with great courage. Her range of action was not only limited to the town but also extended to even the most remote villages of the Kabylie. Furthermore, through these activities Nabila established relations with other national and international women's organizations through meetings and common declarations. The repeal of the "Family Code" was one of the fundamental demands of the organization. This code reduces the woman to the status of a minor and makes her an eternal dependent ["assisstée"].

Nabila lengthened the macabre list of certain unionists, journalists, and artists... those whom by their pens, their militant efforts, their literary works, or art had tried to give breath to a people asphyxiated by political bipolarization-polarization (power/ Islam) - those who paid with their life the price of sacrifice.

The dream of the sweet rebel, of nourishing liberty and hope to see a better, more just and humane world, was diverted on Feb. 15, 1995. Two years after your disappearance, the same sorrow, the same pain are still felt deep in the entrails of all those who knew and loved you.

Nabila, the eternal echo of your laugh reaches us still from the depths of the mountains. Your goodness and generosity nourish our bodies with the energy to continue the winding path that you traced for us toward LIBERTY.

Hmimiche A.M.

Brooklyn, New York

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