Examples of psychological torture and its physical effects on female detainees in Tifelfel Women's Prison in the Aurès region from 1955 to 1962

Abstract

This research paper examines the methods of psychological and physical torture by the French colonial authorities on women detainees in French prisons during the Algerian Revolution from 1954 to 1962. The study focuses on the female detainees at the Tifelfel women's prison in the Aurès region, which was the first prison for women in Algeria during the liberation revolution, established in 1955 and dedicated to the wives of the freedom fighters.

Key points addressed in our study include:

- Studying excerpts from testimonies of female detainees with their children at Tifelfel prison, detailing the circumstances and reasons for their imprisonment, their daily life inside the prison, and the physical and psychological torture methods they were subjected to.

- Analyzing some testimonies of female detainees at Tifelfel women's prison such as the testimonies of Zahra Obeid Allah, Shamkha Bint Rahmoun, and Jumaa Suleimani, among more than twenty incarcerated women, highlighting the methods of psychological and physical torture.

- Highlighting the simple rural women's suffering and their endurance of the responsibility for the revolution alongside their male counterparts for the liberation of their homeland.