36 Facts About Zohra Drif

Zohra Drif Bitat is a retired Algerian lawyer, moudjahid, and the vice-president of the Council of the Nation, the upper house of the Algerian Parliament.

Zohra Drif is best known for her activities on behalf of the National Liberation Front during the Algerian War of Independence.

Zohra Drif was married to Rabah Bitat, one of the heads of the FLN and president of the National Assembly.

Zohra Drif was a part of the FLN's bomb network and during the Algerian War of Independence, she worked with Ali La Pointe, Hassiba Ben Bouali, and Yacef Saadi, head of the Autonomous Zone of Algiers.

Zohra Drif was born into an upper-class, traditional Algerian family and was raised in the countryside.

Zohra Drif's father was a well-established lawyer and reached the status of qadi.

Zohra Drif attended an elite secondary school, Lycee Fromentin, in Algiers, and later studied law at the University of Algiers from 1954.

For Zohra Drif, the overwhelming contradiction of individual rights and liberties professed in French philosophy was a direct contradiction to her experiences of French Colonialism.

Zohra Drif played an active role in the activities of the FLN around this time alongside Djamila Bouhired and Hassiba Ben Bouali.

Zohra Drif joined the revolutionary movement early on during her studies at the University of Algiers as she was involved in the Autonomous Zone of Algiers.

Later, with her friend Samia Lakhdari Zohra Drif joined the FLN, initially participating mainly through delivering packages and supporting the struggle in distant ways.

Zohra Drif has frequently explained her role in the revolution as well as the importance of women in the revolution.

Zohra Drif used such a disguise in the 1956 Milk Bar Cafe Bombing.

In July and August 1957, Zohra Drif attended two interviews between Yacef Saadi and Germaine Tillion on 4 July and 9 August.

On 30 September 1956, Zohra Drif's unit, consisting of her and two other female revolutionaries, Samia Lakhdari and Djamila Boupacha, was directed to carry out a bombing.

Zohra Drif's attack killed three young women and injured others, including children who lost limbs.

Furthermore, Zohra Drif recalls the ease with which the Colonial Authorities accused the innocent Algerian Communist Party member Raymonde Peschard as alarming.

Zohra Drif suggests this further cemented her dedication to the movement as it confirmed that the French Authorities did not see their dedication to principles of equality and liberty as relevant in Algeria.

In particular Zohra Drif was pivotal in coordinating unions and guilds prior to the strike as well as giving advice to the wider popular as to how they could support the strike.

Furthermore, alongside Djamila Boupacha, Zohra Drif was responsible for monitoring the impact of the strike on citizens, especially women and children.

Zohra Drif avoided the streets by climbing across the rooftops and spoke to women and children from their homes.

Zohra Drif reflects on the strike and assesses that, in spite of the huge amount of violence and repression it triggered, it was an immense success and she suggests proved to the Colonial Authorities and France that Algeria would be successful in its struggle for independence.

Immediately before her arrest, Zohra Drif was particularly passionate about bringing more women into the movement, seeing them as vital assets to its success.

Zohra Drif was working on staging a large sit-in of women in front of the Prefecture and mobilising women to join this protest.

Furthermore, the capture of those close to Zohra Drif including her friend Djamila Boupacha further made her aware and cautious to the possibility of capture.

Zohra Drif was arrested alongside her colleague and military chief of the ZAA's Yacef Saadi.

Saadi and Zohra Drif was taken by Villa Nador In the centre of Algiers.

Zohra Drif was interviewed by the Colonial Authorities and held in solitary confinement but never subjected to the brutal torture methods synonymous with the regime.

Zohra Drif published a 20-page treatise, entitled The death of my brothers, in 1960, while still in prison.

Zohra Drif was eventually pardoned by Charles de Gaulle on the occasion of Algerian independence in 1962.

Zohra Drif went on to be one of the first women elected to the Algerian Council of the Nations, where she continued to work for 15 years.

Zohra Drif was one of the founding critics of the "Code de la Famille" when it was enacted in 1984.

The Family Code was subject to much criticism and many of the same female militants, including Zohra Drif, who participated in the war continued to march in the 1980s against the Family Code and Islamic fundamentalism and gender inequality in Algeria after the war.

Zohra Drif was appointed to the Senate of Algeria and in her position, like others of the older mujahideen, was targeted with much animosity.

Zohra Drif was a victim of many accusations, all difficult to verify, but all very critical in the Algerian public.

Zohra Drif is the widow of former Algerian president Rabah Bitat.