the changing faces of resistence

According to Fanon, wearing the faik to veil one’s body, while originally an organic part of the culture of the colonized, is understood by the colonists as an essential trait of Algerian women. He then discusses the choices of veiling or unveiling one’s body as different ways or resistance, or rejection of the inserted values of the colonists, revealing the Western understanding of Algerian woman as the veiled mystery to be indeed constrained perceptions that can only see her as the stereotypical and imagined other. Women that resist the colonialists by strengthening their conformity to traditional behavior do so as a kind of antagonistic reaction against the colonialists’ violent penetration into the colonialized culture, but are in turn caught by the negative effects of doing so – the confinement of her body, loss of ease and assurance. The “revolutionary woman” who unveils herself to take on tasks for the Front overcomes her previously-cultivated timidity – “the shoulders of the unveiled Algerian woman are thrust back with easy freedom. She walks with a graceful. measured stride, neither too fast nor too slow” (51). If she can be seen to have achieved freedom here, it is because she is part of the self-librating revolution, rather than because she has confirmed to the Western appeal to have her unveil herself. And then wearing the faik is also taken as a tactic when it enables one to transport weapons. Fanon’s analysis breaks down the essentialist idea of the veiled Algerian woman, demonstrating how the colonialized is created by the colonialist as the former also create themselves as they react to violence done by the latter.