Just look at the heading on this - interviewed by, translated by: such are the contortions necessary to allow an Algerian feminist to communicate with Western readers. It is, however, worth the trouble. This is no wail of despair but an intelligent, coherent argument from a political thinker who would be considered uncommonly lucid in almost any other culture; in her native Algeria, of course, she has been condemned to death by the Islamic Salvation Front. The official communique which informed her of this, one of the most chilling documents you are likely to see for a long time, is reprinted in an appendix. In a series of conversations with Schemla, Messaoudi recalls the Algeria of her childhood, traces the changes of recent years and details her battle to restore to Algerian women what she calls "the basics of dignity".
