The many vicissitudes in Norah’s story possess an empowering impudence which leads to believe that, despite the prevailing fundamentalism in some countries, the new generation of Muslim women will not be silently crushed and humiliated as were its predecessors. Norah’s undaunted strength and hope for a brighter future are characteristics which somehow prevail in those whose destinies are held captive by perpetrators who use religion and sacred scriptures as an excuse to torment their victims at will. This book recalls some events found in Samia Shariff’s notorious Veil of Fear, published in 20... continue
This gripping insider's account chronicles how and why a young woman in 1950s Algiers joined the armed wing of Algeria's national liberation movement to combat her country's French occupiers. When the movement's leaders turned to Drif and her female colleagues to conduct attacks in retaliation for French aggression against the local population, they leapt at the chance. Their actions were later portrayed in Gillo Pontecorvo's famed film The Battle of Algiers. When first published in French in 2013, this intimate memoir was met with great acclaim and no small amount of controversy. It is essent... continue