Short description
Nadia, from a small town in central Algeria that has been especially affected by the struggle between Islamist terrorists and the authorities, married a local hooligan whose rebellious spirit she found irresistible. This title provides a human face to the cultural wars that have torn Algeria and the Middle East apart.
Long description
The Algerian journalist Baya Gacemi takes a dangerous political step in writing the autobiography of a young Algerian woman whom she met through a program for female victims of Islamist violence in Algiers. Nadia, from a small town in central Algeria that has been especially affected by the struggle between Islamist terrorists and the authorities, married a local hooligan whose rebellious spirit she found irresistible. Unfortunately, her husband was already transforming himself from petty criminal to foot soldier and then local emir of the Islamic Action Group. Nadia's ensuing nightmare lasted over four years. As a result of the growing polarization between Islamists and the local government Nadia had become an outcast reviled by relatives and threatened by neighbors. By 1996, with Nadia pregnant and destitute and her husband hunted by government agents, her parents expelled her from their home. Gacemi provides a human face to the cultural wars that have torn Algeria and the Middle East apart, revealing the roots of terrorism and the impact of the nightmarish struggle of the women caught up in it. Baya Gacemi is an Algerian journalist. Paul Cote and Constantina Mitchell are freelance translators in Montreal. They have cotranslated Letter from Morocco, Cry of the Gull, and Deaf Planet. Fanny Colonna is the director of research emerita at the French National Center of Scientific Research. Edmund Burke III is a professor of Middle Eastern and world history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the editor (with David N. Yaghoubian) of Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East, second edition.
Review
Readers should ponder the wisdom of the decision made by Algeria's military to deprive Islamists of their political victory in 1991. It is because Islamist radicals enter the political process with such contempt for democracy that one must be cautious in legitimizing them politically. For those interested in learning how jihadists and militants are perverting Islam, Gacemi's book is a good place to start.