ABSTRACT
Algerian women and their culture have traditionally been mystified by more or less well-intentioned social scientists and feminists moved by something akin to missionary zeal. Academic feminism has brought a breath of fresh air into the social science discourse on women, and has held the promise of a more evenhanded, more holistic practice. Asian-American feminists have pointed out that Third World feminists feel under pressure to choose between their feminism and their ethnicity or culture. Islamic feminists' strenuous efforts to re-interpret religious texts have led to a renewed interest in Islam as a system of ideas and beliefs that contains within itself the power to expurgate all its gendered injunctions and prescriptions. Ideally, writing about women in Algeria should be so transparent as to simply reflect their reality unmediated, a sort of "degree zero" writing. Writing about women in Algeria is akin to entering the Pascalian wager.
