Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines resistance by women since the 1960s in the three countries of the Maghreb, specifically through cinema, politics, and the arts. It examines how ensconced traditional institutions favoring patriarchy to the detriment women have contributed to the “political fuel” evoked by Benjamin Stora. Kahina in this book is more than a name or a historical emblem. The book deals with the transformation of the public sphere in Tunisia by women activists following the 2011 revolution. It discusses women's activism in Morocco. The book then examines the centrality of women to Berber identity and art. It deals with women's resistance and gender relations in post-Arab Spring North Africa. The book compares the crossed representations of the post-Islamist era in the contemporary Algerian film industry using seven major films on the struggle of women in the 1990s.