Breaking the Silence

French Women’s Voices from the Ghetto

Häftad, Engelska, 2006

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Beskrivning

Born in France of Algerian parents, Fadela Amara is a human rights activist who speaks with both a personal and a collective voice. This book is a passionate account of her struggle to found the movement called 'Ni Putes Ni Soumises' (Neither Whore Nor Submissive), aimed at shattering the law of silence about violence against women within French suburban communities. The questions Amara raises are part of a broader agenda to open contemporary French society to greater ethnic and cultural diversity. These issues also pose problems of national identity and the defense of secularism for the state. As France increasingly confronts such tensions and the emergence of Islamic movements, French cities face problems of unemployment, racial and ethnic discrimination, and violence. Amara's eloquent call for social and gender equality underscores a host of interconnected issues, including France's colonial past and the degradation of the suburbs into ghettos that have progressively marginalized immigrant and working-class communities.Amara and her co-workers have challenged the French Republic's leaders using a strategy that champions republican secular values and stresses the language of universalism to advance individual rights. Women's rights are human rights, they argue, thus casting their demands for equality in terms of a broader struggle for democratic freedoms. Moving, candid, and timely, "Breaking the Silence" created a sensation when it was published in France. Fadela Amara is currently State Minister for Urban Affairs, charged with the rehabilitation of the very ghettos she describes.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2006-04-28
Mått:140 x 210 x 13 mm
Vikt:227 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:186
Förlag:University of California Press
ISBN:9780520246218
Översättare:Helen Chenut

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Mer om författaren

Fadela Amara is President of Ni Putes Ni Soumises, as well as the Federation Nationale des Maisons des Potes, a network of associations working to structure civic, cultural, and social activities in suburban housing projects. Sylvia Zappi writes for Le Monde and is the coauthor of Our Spring in Winter (1986). Helen Harden Chenut is Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of California, Irvine.

Recensioner i media

"The translation of Neither Whores Nor Doormats allows us, finally, to listen directly to the voices of Muslim women in France. Fadela Amara's book is at once autobiography, an analysis of the degradation of male-female relations in France's working-class suburbs, and an engrossing chronicle of a political movement. Helen Chenut's deft translation and comprehensive introduction introduces us to the complex universe inhabited by young women of North African descent in contemporary France." - Susanna Barrows, author of Drinking: Behavior and Belief in Modern History"

Innehållsförteckning

Translator's Introduction Prologue PART ONE: SOCIAL BREAKDOWN IN THE PROJECTS 1 Daughter of the Housing Projects 2 The Status of Women in the 1990s 3 Between Invisibility and Rebellion 4 Sexuality in the Projects 5 From Neighborhood to Ghetto 6 Obscurantism, the Key to Regression PART TWO: AN ACT OF SURVIVAL: THE MARCH AND ITS SUCCESS 7 Preparations for the March 8 The Success of the March 9 Is Feminism No Longer Relevant? 10 The Battle Ahead Epilogue: Reinvest in the Suburbs! Postscript Appendix 1: A National Appeal from Neighborhood Women Appendix 2: The Manifesto of Neighborhood Women Bibliography and Further Reading Index