Djamila Boupacha

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Djamila Boupacha (born February 9, 1938 in Saint-Eugène, today: Bologhine , Algeria) is an activist of the Algerian National Liberation Front ( Front de liberation nationale , FLN). Her confession, compelled by torture for more than a month , led to a judicial and media case initiated by Gisèle Halimi and Simone de Beauvoir . Nonetheless, Djamila Boupacha was sentenced to death on June 28, 1961. The amnesty linked to the Armistice Agreement in Évian suspended the sentence, but she remained in custody until April 21, 1962 (according to other sources until May 7, 1962).

biography

Djamila is the daughter of Abdelaziz Ben Mohamed and Amarouche Zoubida Bent Mohamed. She signed up with the FLN under the code name Khelida . In 1960 she was suspected of having deposited a bomb in a restaurant in Algiers in February 1959 , but it did not detonate. According to Gisèle Halimi, "she had not committed an assassination, but was close to doing it". She was arrested in February 1960 at her father's company; her brother, her sister Nafissa and her brother-in-law Abdellih Ahmed as well. All detainees were tortured, Djamila Boupacha for more than a month by members of the French army.

Simone de Beauvoir wrote in her column in Le Monde in June 1960 about what prompted French Prime Minister Michel Debré to intervene in Algeria. When Gisèle Halimi took over the defense of Djamila before the Algerian military court, the Djamila Boupacha affair received international attention. Finally, a committee for Djamila Boupacha was formed, chaired by Simone de Beauvoir, whose members included Jean-Paul Sartre , Louis Aragon , Elsa Triolet , Gabriel Marcel , Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz and Germaine Tillion . With the help of Simone Veil , the public pressure the committee was building made it possible to move Djamila to France. Gisèle Halimi was still unable to make any progress on the torture interrogations of the French army in Algeria. The French Minister of Defense Pierre Messmer and the commander of the French army in Algeria Charles Ailleret prevented any information on this from becoming provable.

Although Djamila was able to identify her torturers from photographs at the Caen trial in June 1961 - which was evidence of the forced confession - she was sentenced to death. In 1962 the amnesty took place under the treaties of Évian; the amnesty also ended the investigation into Djamila's torturer.

She was released on May 7, 1962 and lived with Gisèle Halimi. At the instigation of the FLN, she was brought back to Algeria, where she has lived since then.

In the arts

Pablo Picasso portrayed Djamila Boupacha; the picture also became the cover of a book by Gisèle Halimi and Simone de Beauvoir.

Luigi Nono paid tribute to the freedom fighter with the piece Djamila Boupacha , an unaccompanied monody for soprano solo, the second part of his Canti di Vita e d'Amore (1962). The text is based on the poem Esta noche by Jesús López Pacheco from Pongo la mano sohre Espana .

literature

  • Gisèle Halimi in collaboration with Simone de Beauvoir : Djamila Boupacha. Gallimard, 1962. Contains testimonies and statements from various public figures in France.
  • Rita Maran: Torture, the role of ideology in the Franco-Algerian war. Praeger, 1989

items

  • Philip Agee: Torture as an Instrument of National Politics: France 1954–1962. In: Social Justice. Volume 17, No. 4 (42), Winter 1990, pp. 131-138.
  • Page Whaley Eager: From freedom fighter to terrorist. Ashgate, 2008, pp. 111-114.

Filmography

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gisèle Halimi and others: Djamila Boupacha. Gallimard, 1962
  2. ↑ James D. Le Sueur: Torture and the decolonization of french algeria: nationalisme 'race' and violence during colonial incarceration. In: Graeme Harper (dir.): Colonial and Post-Colonial Incarceration. éd. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001, pp. 161-175
  3. ^ Affaire de Djamila Boupacha: Gisèle Halimi. online on the blog Cri de Cœur , November 1st, 2008 (interview by Gisèle Halimi)
  4. ↑ Simone de Beauvoir: For Djamila Boupacha. In: Le Monde. February 6, 1960
  5. ↑ Duration 4:53. Also on sound carriers
personal data
SURNAME Boupacha, Djamila
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Khelida (alias)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Algerian resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Eugène, today: Bologhine , Algeria