ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines the reasons that changes in the status of women have been so slow in Algeria as he consider the impact of changes that have taken place since 1962. The emancipation of women has therefore been viewed by most Algerian nationalists as a device of colonial rule to "divide and conquer" and to deprive Algerians of their authentic Arabo-Islamic culture. Even during the period of retrenchment and reappraisal of women's issues, men did not enjoy a complete monopoly of political participation. The French employed some techniques to acculturate Algerian women to French mores during the period of late colonialism. The participation of more than 10,000 women in the Algerian war of liberation against France was the most important source of heightened expectations for an improvement of their social status after the attainment of independence. Islam emerged as the single most significant unifying "myth" as Algeria won its independence.
