This gripping insider's account chronicles how and why a young woman in
1950s Algiers joined the armed wing of Algeria's national liberation
movement to combat her country's French occupiers. When the movement's
leaders turned to Drif and her female colleagues to conduct attacks in
retaliation for French aggression against the local population, they
leapt at the chance. Their actions were later portrayed in Gillo
Pontecorvo's famed film The Battle of Algiers. When first published in
French in 2013, this intimate memoir was met with great acclaim and no
small amount of controversy. It is essential reading for anyone seeking
to understand not only the anti-colonial struggles of the 20th century
and their relevance today, but also the specific challenges that women
often confronted (and overcame) in those movements.