Whither Freedom
In Franz Fanon's chapter "Algeria Unveiled" he describes the connotation behind the Algerian woman's veil and how its significance was interpreted by the colonizers. The heart of the chapter covers the resistance movement and how the veil was politicized. The events bring up many questions regarding freedom and what any group of peoples are working towards.
We need to consider what freedom looks like (what has been achieved and called freedom) and what we would like it to look like. In regards to the Algerian women in Fanon's writing it is difficult to qualify what freedom they want to achieve since their voices are absent from the text. Women are not only colonized but also suffer under the patriarchal structure of most societies. Their oppression is two-fold and thus their perception of freedom would differ from the men of their community who only want freedom from the colonizers.
In "Algeria Unveiled" we see that we never know what the women think of their own veils. We only hear of the significance ascribed to them by the French, who see converting women as the catalyst in "attaining a practical, effective means of restructuring Algerian culture". So regardless of what the veil means to the Algerian's it is now symbolic of whether the woman has been "civilized" or not. They wanted to save the women from their husband's tight grasp. But while we do not know if the symbolic removal of the veil would accomplish such a goal, we can assume it is highly unlikely that it would "free" the women from such a complex subjugation.
In addition once women did start to remove their veils as a way of passing undetected and working for the resistance, were they free then? They had removed the veil from their own will but also because it was a necessary act for the greater good of their cause. Were they free because they had some agency and involvement in fighting for what they believed in? Was this freedom thanks to reduced oppression and pressure from the colonizers or the Algerian men because of their compliance? Fanon attributes all the unveilings as being done with the intention of aiding the resistance and completely occludes the possibility that some of those Algerian women had removed it of their own volition. Fanon cannot even humor giving women a desire and dream of their own so how can women expect to be free when others just impose their own ideals and motivations onto women, their bodies, and their actions.
Even when the women start donning their veils again after the French catch on to the ploy, they are still not free. They have done what they wanted in order to oppose and reject the colonizer but at the same time have reverted to the strict patriarchal rules under the guise of tradition. We don't know the importance of the veil before the Orientalists describe them, but we know its significance after. So even what may not have been an important cultural practice has been politicized thanks to the need to reject and resist wherever possible.
But is this intense reversion to tradition freedom for anyone? To feel like you must be the exact opposite of the colonizer in order to win leaves a very narrow space for existence. Post-colonial states must simultaneous preserve and reinvigorate their culture while also compete with the economy of the West. So even after a nation has been granted its freedom, it is not free from its years of disadvantages due to colonial rule and the pressure to do something great with this newfound "freedom" is suffocating. The cost of this freedom was already so high but the nations will continue to pay for it. In the case of Algeria it was the strict adherence to a tradition that hid women from the public. Even once the colonizers leave, imperial forces still remain and the pressure to give into the Western conception of modernity combined with the mess these nations inherit. And so the pipe dream of a free nation where we thrive in our culture and diversity never seems to materialize.
We need to consider what freedom looks like (what has been achieved and called freedom) and what we would like it to look like. In regards to the Algerian women in Fanon's writing it is difficult to qualify what freedom they want to achieve since their voices are absent from the text. Women are not only colonized but also suffer under the patriarchal structure of most societies. Their oppression is two-fold and thus their perception of freedom would differ from the men of their community who only want freedom from the colonizers.
In "Algeria Unveiled" we see that we never know what the women think of their own veils. We only hear of the significance ascribed to them by the French, who see converting women as the catalyst in "attaining a practical, effective means of restructuring Algerian culture". So regardless of what the veil means to the Algerian's it is now symbolic of whether the woman has been "civilized" or not. They wanted to save the women from their husband's tight grasp. But while we do not know if the symbolic removal of the veil would accomplish such a goal, we can assume it is highly unlikely that it would "free" the women from such a complex subjugation.
In addition once women did start to remove their veils as a way of passing undetected and working for the resistance, were they free then? They had removed the veil from their own will but also because it was a necessary act for the greater good of their cause. Were they free because they had some agency and involvement in fighting for what they believed in? Was this freedom thanks to reduced oppression and pressure from the colonizers or the Algerian men because of their compliance? Fanon attributes all the unveilings as being done with the intention of aiding the resistance and completely occludes the possibility that some of those Algerian women had removed it of their own volition. Fanon cannot even humor giving women a desire and dream of their own so how can women expect to be free when others just impose their own ideals and motivations onto women, their bodies, and their actions.
Even when the women start donning their veils again after the French catch on to the ploy, they are still not free. They have done what they wanted in order to oppose and reject the colonizer but at the same time have reverted to the strict patriarchal rules under the guise of tradition. We don't know the importance of the veil before the Orientalists describe them, but we know its significance after. So even what may not have been an important cultural practice has been politicized thanks to the need to reject and resist wherever possible.
But is this intense reversion to tradition freedom for anyone? To feel like you must be the exact opposite of the colonizer in order to win leaves a very narrow space for existence. Post-colonial states must simultaneous preserve and reinvigorate their culture while also compete with the economy of the West. So even after a nation has been granted its freedom, it is not free from its years of disadvantages due to colonial rule and the pressure to do something great with this newfound "freedom" is suffocating. The cost of this freedom was already so high but the nations will continue to pay for it. In the case of Algeria it was the strict adherence to a tradition that hid women from the public. Even once the colonizers leave, imperial forces still remain and the pressure to give into the Western conception of modernity combined with the mess these nations inherit. And so the pipe dream of a free nation where we thrive in our culture and diversity never seems to materialize.
Comments
b) "They had removed the veil from their own will but also because it was a necessary act for the greater good of their cause." - why can't their will be attached to the cause of freedom?
c) work on your expression. take this statement as an example: Even once the colonizers leave, imperial forces still remain and the pressure to give into the Western conception of modernity combined with the mess these nations inherit.