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Hassi Messaoud, Algeria’s biggest oil-producer, attracts many occidental companies. Many Algerian women came to live there in order to escape the consequences of the economic downturn and terrorism raging in the 1990’s. They live in community; forging a strong solidarity and sincere affective ties, they come to discover that they can live in freedom while building a decent future for themselves.
For the men living in Hassi Messaoud, who refuse to accept the service jobs taken up by their female counterparts and often rent ramshackle houses to them, their newly gained liberty is intolerable – to them, it can be but a prostitutes’ liberty. On Friday, 13th of July 2001, in the local Mosque, the Imam condemns the women in a fiery speech, unleashing a wild mob that is about to perpetuate a horror night. Not only were the women of Hassi Messaoud victims of rapes and a massacre; they were also repudiated by their own families and felt humiliated by the silence of the international press, the appeal to reconciliation pronounced by the Imam, and, above all, an endless trial in which they were denied the status of victim and the guilty were not convicted.
Rahmouna Salah and Fatiha Maamoura were born and grew up in Algeria. With this brave and heart-rending testimony, at the risk of their lives, these women are fighting for their dignity to be acknowledged.
Nadia Kaci, an Algerian actress (Ca commence aujourd’hui, 1998, Bertrand Tavernier; Délice Paloma, 2006, and Viva Laldjerie, 2004, Nadir Mokneche), has supported the authors by contributing to the writing process.
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