Women, Algerians and enemies

Extract

[...] (Bourdieu and Wacquant 2005: 272). So, for this population, rapes are the worst possible humiliation. French soldiers knew that. Among Paul Aussaresses, in his book, claims torture was a "necessary evil" ( Aussaresses 2006 : 191) and there was no possible way to distinguish between women and men. In The Wet Bag and Other phantoms, A. Krog explains that a torturer's success depends on his intimate knowledge of the human psyche. (A.Krog 2005: 375) Indeed, in its will of ownership and humiliation, the rape against the Algerian women was an attempt to destroy the fundamental values of the population. [...]

[...] ] the blinding sun of torture is at its zenith, it lights up the whole country.” (Sartre 2005: 230) Actually, French behavior in Algeria was really violent, denying humane conditions and Algerian traditions. This brings me to wonder how human beings can participate in such atrocities against other human beings. Stanley Milgram (Milgram 2005: 146) has studied obedience as a psychological mechanism. Milgram's laboratory demonstrated how and why normally decent human beings could be recruited to commit an atrocity. In the name of obedience, people will torture, rape or kill; as General Aussaresses did Conclusion Whether male or female bodies are being raped, and whether it is in times of conflict or peace, rape is an act of violence against the human, both women and men. [...]

[...] Indeed, even if few of them were fighting (just like Djamila Amrane), most of the women dedicated themselves to activities such as care, providing food, and accommodation. Furthermore, their discretion allowed them to assume liaison officer's role. So, the place of the women became increasingly stronger by participating in the civil organization of the people. In war period, their behavior evolved. Shopping, traditionally allotted to men, began to be done by women, along with cooking. The women reached little by little to the rank of subjects in the war and they are from then on, as the men, suspected, arrested for their own activities. [...]

[...] Besides, symbolic force is a form of power, as P.Bourdieu says in his article Gender and Symbolic Violence. In a relation to domination, symbolic violence is exercised only through an act of knowledge which takes place below the level of the consciousness. Bourdieu considers gendered oppression to be a classic example of symbolic violence, symbolic violence of masculine domination” (Bourdieu 2005: 340). When a French soldier rapes an Algerian woman, through the signs of the sexual “hierarchy”, he not only asserts his domination on the woman but also on Algerian people, allowing the physical occupation of Algeria by the French army. [...]

[...] Rape was sexualized violence that sought to humiliate, terrorize and destroy a woman based on her identity as a woman. This was based on total contempt by dehumanizing the victim. Indeed, rape is a gender crime, a crime against dignity and honor. Lost honor implies the loss of respect. It also reinforces the social view felt by women that a raped woman is dishonorable. To sum it up, rape is violence against a woman's body, autonomy, integrity, security and its goal is domination. [...]