The Algerian journalist Baya Gacemi takes a dangerous political step in writing the “autobiography” of a young Algerian woman whom she met through a program for female victims of Islamist violence in Algiers. Nadia, from a small town in central Algeria that has been especially affected by the struggle between Islamist terrorists and the authorities, married a local hooligan whose rebellious spirit she found irresistible. Unfortunately, her husband was already transforming himself from petty criminal to foot soldier and then local emir of the Islamic Action Group. Nadia's ensuing nightmare lasted over four years. As a result of the growing polarization between Islamists and the local government Nadia had become an outcast reviled by relatives and threatened by neighbors.

By 1996, with Nadia pregnant and destitute and her husband hunted by government agents, her parents expelled her from their home. Gacemi provides a human face to the cultural wars that have torn Algeria and the Middle East apart, revealing the roots of terrorism and the impact of the nightmarish struggle of the women caught up in it.

 

Baya Gacemi is an Algerian journalist.

 

Paul Côté and Constantina Mitchell are freelance translators in Montreal. They have cotranslated Letter from Morocco, Cry of the Gull, and Deaf Planet.

 

Fanny Colonna is the director of research emerita at the French National Center of Scientific Research.

 

Edmund Burke III is a professor of Middle Eastern and world history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the editor (with David N. Yaghoubian) of Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East, second edition.

 

"Nadia tells her story simply, offering little analysis. It is the very directness of the narrative that will push readers to consider both the appeal Islamism holds for some downtrodden women, and the way militant Islamism keeps women prisoners. An ultimately heart-wrenching personal account."—Kirkus Reviews

"Readers should ponder the wisdom of the decision made by Algeria’s military to deprive Islamists of their political victory in 1991. It is because Islamist radicals enter the political process with such contempt for democracy that one must be cautious in legitimizing them politically. For those interested in learning how jihadists and militants are perverting Islam, Gacemi’s book is a good place to start."—LCDR Youssef Aboul-Enein, Military Review

"Stark, visceral, and disturbing, this biography tells the true story of the transformation of a naïve teenage into the wife of a brutal religious fanatic. . . . Many books have been written about the terrorist mind, but few explore the psychology of the civilians who make the terrorist way of life possible.  . . . Both Gacemi and her subject have taken a brave step in telling this story."—ForeWord

"Nadia's voice has the clarity of Anne Frank or Zlata Filipovic, the young diarist from Sarajevo. Her story adds immeasurably to our empathy for victims of violence everywhere and to our understanding of the roots of terrorism."—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Gacemi's unique and invaluable portrayal of this personal side of terrorism is shocking, poignant, and impossible to forget."—Booklist

"This first-person account of a young woman's seduction by Islamist extremism also offers an intimate look at the Algerian civil war. . . . Gacemi's book received a lot of attention in France. Since Americans are less knowledgeable about Algeria, it will probably get less here-which is unfortunate, since her account of how a whole community can be seduced by terrorists is frightening and invaluable."—Publishers Weekly

"[A] fascinating autobiography. . . Nadia's is a rare, firsthand account by a female Islamist extremist, and it reveals the personal, domestic dramas underlying the political turmoil of our times."—Washington Post Book World