Lorsque l'horreur est entrée dans un pays, rien d'étonnant à ce que le malheur se propage. Fatima Amor le sait bien, elle qui un beau matin a été l'une de ces Algériennes frappées par la folie des intégristes. Elle qui, un autre beau matin, après avoir été emprisonnée, violée, mutilée, a été rendue au monde quotidien.

Mais comment revivre ? La famille tente de sauver les apparences en organisant un mariage et, c'est vrai, tout aurait pu rentrer dans l'ordre. Sauf que Fatima souffre et qu'elle n'a personne à qui le dire. Alors, sous la peau, les germes de la folie poussent, et un autre beau matin, la victime se transforme en tortionnaire.

Un livre cruel, mais pas plus que ne le sont les vérités. Pas plus que ne le sont les hommes dans un pays où les Fatima Amor doivent subir et se taire, continuer à vivre et même à rire. C'est vrai que l'on rit souvent dans Le Châtiment des hypocrites, car malgré tout il y a cette verve méditerranéenne, ces expressions de "là-bas", comiques et tragiques.

-- Isabelle Rossignol

Leïla Marouane - 'Le Châtiment des hypocrites'


Algerian women in the 1990s lived in exile

The drama of exile and women's need for emancipation are the themes of Algerian writer Leila Marouane's latest novel.

The author, who has just returned from the Turin book fair, says her new book 'Le chatiment des hypocrites' focuses on violence and exile through the story of Fatima, a young Algerian woman who is kidnapped by extremists for seven months.

"The figure of Fatima is a metaphor for exile and estrangement," she said. "My question in the book is how to finally feel at home, how to succeed and close such a parenthesis."

The main character of the book, who lives the drama of an estimated 3,700 Algerian women in the 1990s, finds solace in the end in the love of a former neighbor who has moved to Paris - though the end has in store a few surprises for the reader.

According to Marouane, who was also a victim of violence in Algiers and was forced to move to Paris, the answer to her question is maternity, which "helps end exile."

"I saw them [emigres] leave, then set up family and in this way end their exile and asked myself if the same thing would happen to me."she said. "At the time I didn't have children. Finally, they arrived and I too closed with the past."

Marouane said the Algerian society she describes in the book "is 100 percent real." "Fatima's case is not exceptional and in the past few years many traumatised women have sought refuge in shelters managed by volunteers," said the writer.

"Personally, I didn't even know they (the shelters) existed and later found out about them thanks to an Algerian writer," she said, adding that such centers were built as reparation for the horror lived by many women during the civil war.

Confessing that Fatima's story is partly based on her own life, she recalled how "after becoming a victim of violence, I too did not sleep at home anymore but lived in a hotel or stayed with friends."

Though her protagonist represents the call of Algerian women for emancipation, Marouane said the institutions are unwilling to accept this: "Algerian women are aware of what they want but lawmakers don't want any changes."

Book relives drama of women in Algeria's 90s