Amazigh women : an illusion the depiction of different forms of gender bias in Kabyle folktales

Abstract EN

The aim of this study is to identify and to decipher the gender hierarchies, and social divisions based on gender from discourses born and created within the Kabyle culture, and by the actors of tradition themselves.

That is to say , born from folktales which are created and produced by women and grandmothers in order not only to entertain their children and their entourage, but also to convey messages and express themselves.

The analysis aims at shedding the light on how gender is constructed, and mainly how females are represented, considered and conditioned in the Kabyle society.

To reach the purpose of this work, and to figure out how gender is constructed in the Kabyle society; some recurrent themes, characters, and images be they implicit or explicit- in the folktales – have been spotted and analyzed from a gender perspective.

The analysis of covert and overt representations revealed that the female/male relationship and women lives are not always magical as it seems when first reading the tales; besides, the portrayal of woman reflects how she is perceived in the real life by Kabyles, which means that the female storytellers did not dare drew another picture of themselves even though the production of story is based on imagination and everything is allowed in imagination.