Djamila Boupacha

Djamila Boupacha, an FLN activist, became a symbol of the fight for the rights of prisoners during the Algerian war of independence. Her case was taken up by the lawyer Gisèle Halimi and the writer Simone de Beauvoir. She was born on 9 February 1938 in Bologhine, formerly Saint-Eugène, in Algiers.

Boupacha joined Ferhat Abbas's party, the UDMA, in 1953 and the FLN in 1955.

French forces arrested her in February 1960, together with members of her family. She was held at El Biar and Hussein Dey, and her account of her detention was the basis of her case.

Gisèle Halimi became her lawyer in May 1960, and in June Simone de Beauvoir defended her in Le Monde. A support committee was formed in Paris, and her case was moved to France, to the court in Caen.

Boupacha was freed in April 1962 under the amnesty that followed the Évian Accords. That year Beauvoir and Halimi published the book Djamila Boupacha, with a portrait of her by Picasso. The TV film Pour Djamila told her story in 2012.

After independence she stayed away from public life. In February 2022 she declined a seat in the Council of the Nation offered by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. In March 2023 President Emmanuel Macron recalled her story at the national tribute to Gisèle Halimi.