Women, War and Memory: Exploring the Experience of the Algerian Women in Al-Faruq’s Tāʽul Khajal

This paper examines how fadila al-faruq’s tāʽul khajal confronts the gendered violence of algeria’s postcolonial civil war, particularly the systemic rape and abduction of women weaponized by extremist groups like the gia. against the backdrop of the 1990s “black decade,” the novel interrogates how women’s bodies became ideological battlegrounds, entangled in colonial legacies and patriarchal oppression. employing trauma theory and feminist frameworks, the textual analysis reveals how al-faruq’s fragmented narrative structure—interweaving personal testimonies, such as the 1994 “year of shame” and the gia’s 1995 campaign of mass abduction—disrupts official silences around wartime atrocities. by juxtaposing graphic accounts of violence with theoretical insights on collective memory, the novel exposes the stigmatization of feminine bodies while challenging norms that normalize gendered aggression. the findings demonstrate that al-faruq’s innovative narrative form not only documents trauma but also reconfigures it as a site of resistance, binding individual suffering to broader sociopolitical critique. ultimately, the novel underscores literature’s capacity to dismantle the false dichotomy between wartime brutality and everyday patriarchal violence, urging a reckoning with algeria’s contested histories.