1960s Algeria: Women, Public Space and Moral Panic

Speaker: Natalya Vince, University of Portsmouth Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies As recent events in North Africa have demonstrated, the post-revolution is often accompanied by moral panic and a desire to 'reinstate' gendered order. This talk explores debates about the place of women in public space in Algeria in the 1960s. Seeking to go beyond commonly-held views of post-independence Algeria as locked in a binary struggle between, on the one hand, 'tradition' and ethno-cultural nationalism and, on the other hand 'modernity' and socialist development, Dr Vince considers how revolutionary progress could embrace puritanical single-mindedness and also how Algerian women in the 1960s responded to and contributed to these debates. Recorded on 12 November 2014.