Life beyond the veil: oppression and resistance in Assia Djebar's a sister to Scheherazade

Abstract EN

The Algerian independence did not bring that much independence for the Algerian woman.

the new liberated women found themselves in a third world patriarchal society that controls all their actions.

Assia Djebar is one of the Algerian women writers who portray the struggle of the Algerian woman to establish and Assert herself according or against the Algerian codes.

Djebar depicts in a sister to scheherazade the mechanics of oppression and the awareness of the Algerian woman of her inferior position and her need for a revolution.

this article tries to point at the juxtaposition between resistance and submission.

the controversies between Isma and Hajila prove the distance between passively accepting social norms and rebelliously taking on independent feminist attitudes.

evaluating the world around these protagonists is related to being veiled or unveiled.

both women go through two different journeys and come up with two different understandings and methods to liberate the Algerian woman.

this paper succeeds to show how the “Haik”, which symbolizes the Algerian conventional tradition, can become preservation or destruction of women identities.