Why are women always excluded from the retelling of historical events? This overlooked segment of the population plays a far greater role in rebellions and the resistance than we are led to believe. In the Algerian revolution women proved indispensable, holding greater importance to the resistance than their male counterparts. This article aims to rectify male-centric history by focusing on the historical impact of Algerian women.
At the dawn of Stalin’s rule, the Soviet state envisaged a new, unwaveringly socialist Central Asia. The Uzbekistan Communist Party declared a hujum (assault) in Central Asia that attacked Muslim women’s practice of veiling their faces in late 1926. The party alleged this proposal was launched to free women and create a more equal society when in reality, it was part of the Soviet Union’s ideology of scientific atheism, an anti-religious policy.
Simon Tseko Nkoli (1957 – 1998) was an anti-apartheid leader and gay rights campaigner in South Africa. He has a legacy of intersectional activism, winning victories against both racial and homophobic discrimination.
The Aba Women’s Rebellion in 1929, also known as the Women’s War, marked a significant development in anti-colonial resistance achieved by women in Nigeria. Following a period of restriction upon women’s participation in the political sphere, as well as newly imposed taxes, this nonviolent protest was the first major organisation of peasant women in West Africa and it is seen largely as a prelude to the later nationalist movements in Africa.
From Hussein Dey’s surrender on the 5th of July 1830 until its independence in 1962, Algeria belonged to the French Empire. Though the main recognised constituents of its war of independence were indeed men, to gloss over the efforts of women during this fight would be to ignore the torture they had endured to see their country free once again.
