Djamila Bouhired
Djamila Bouhired is an Algerian independence fighter. Her trial in 1957 made her known around the world as a symbol of the fight for the rights of prisoners during the war. She was born in 1935 in the Casbah of Algiers.
Djamila Bouhired is an Algerian independence fighter. Her trial in 1957 made her known around the world as a symbol of the fight for the rights of prisoners during the war. She was born in 1935 in the Casbah of Algiers.
Bouhired had an Algerian father and a Tunisian mother. She went to a French school.
During the Battle of Algiers she was an FLN liaison agent and worked closely with Yacef Saâdi. On 9 April 1957 she was arrested in the Casbah.
In July 1957 a military court sentenced her to death. The book Pour Djamila Bouhired, by Georges Arnaud and Jacques Vergès, and Youssef Chahine's film Djamila (1958) made her case known abroad. Her sentence was commuted, and she was freed in 1962.
Vergès, her lawyer, later became her husband, and they had 2 children.
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