Djamila Bouhared

Biography

Djamila Bouhired (Arabic: جميلة بوحيرد), born in June 1935 in Algiers, was a militant of the National Liberation Front (FLN) during the Algerian War (1954-1962), collaborating with Yacef Saâdi, head of the Autonomous Zone of Algiers. Arrested in 1957 during the Battle of Algiers, she was one of six FLN women sentenced to death for their participation in the 1956-1957 attacks. A campaign was organized by her lawyer, Jacques Vergès, and the writer Georges Arnaud to protest this sentence. She was pardoned by General de Gaulle in 1959 and released from prison following the Évian Accords (March 19, 1962). After independence, she married Jacques Vergès in 1965, then divorced him during the period when he mysteriously disappeared (1970-1978). In recent years, she has participated in the protest movement against the political system in place in Algeria, notably taking part in two demonstrations in Algiers in 2019.