DECENTRING WESTERN FEMINISM AND MANLY NATIONALISM

Abstract

Gender based segregations either in public and private spheres have been recurrent problem for women in Western world, however the cases of women in the “Third World” highlight the ways in which race and gender intersect, exemplifying a double form of oppression. This intersection also functions between colonialism (external) and local patriarchy (internal) mechanisms that control women as in the case of Algerian women. This article considers the ways in which Algerian women reformulated the ways of decolonising Western feminism and nationalism in the Algerian Revolution (1954-1962). As such, this paper looks at the distinct perspective, created by Algerian women with an emphasis on their implicit contribution to Western feminist scholarship. By veiling and unveiling interchangeably for national liberation movement against France, Algerian women deviate from the very definitions of Western feminism and challenges patriarchal notions of nationalism. The strategic albeit voluntary act of unveiling earns them a space that is self-representative. This space also represents the backbone of national liberation movement where colonial gaze on women, and control on men in Algeria were contested. The paper concludes that Algerian women can successfully cross national and colonial borders, and hence create a space that is beyond the definitions of Western feminist scholarship, and beyond the demands of colonial authority. The theoretical background of this paper is mainly based on the ideas proposed by Chandra Mohanty, Frantz Fanon, Edward Said and Gayatri Spivak to explore insights from transnational feminism and postcolonial theory regarding gender and nationalism.