ABSTRACT
The dramatic irruption of women into the collective conscience during the war of decolonization is paralleled only by the equally dramatic rise of religiosity in politics since the late 1980s. Algerian intellectuals and government leaders often express surprise at the swiftness with which the faith-based movement rose in political life, and perceive it as alien to the Algerian tradition. Although home-grown, a number of groups comprising the faith-based movement find their intellectual roots in ideas expressed by religious scholars belonging to the history of Islamic thought that transcends Algerian borders. Powerful as the faith-based movement's critique of the state might be, it leaves out the significance of women to a rebuilding of the Algerian state along Islamic lines. It is often claimed that there are two almost antithetical traditions in Islamic thought, one that emphasizes taqlid or social conservation in legal if not social matters another that underscores ijtihad or effort for renewal if not change.
