Marnia Lazreg
Algerian academic (1941–2024)
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Marnia Lazreg (January 10, 1941 – January 13, 2024) was an Algerian academic. Her work focused on women in the Muslim world, with a particular focus on Algeria.[1][2]
Early life
Lazreg was born in Mostaganem, and grew up in colonial Algeria, raised by her mother, a homemaker, and her father, a dry goods seller.[1][2] As a child, she refused to wear a headscarf.[2] Lazreg was able to attend a school for French children,[2] and earned a French Baccalauréat in Philosophy and Mathematics in 1960, during the Algerian War of Independence.[3] Following the war, her family moved to Algiers, where she worked for the city's municipal administration.[2]
She went on to receive a Licence-ès-Lettres in English Literature from the University of Algiers in 1966.[3] After graduating, she began working for Sonatrach, and was sent to work at its New York office in 1967.[2] While working in New York, she attended New York University, earning her master's degree in 1970 and her PhD in sociology in 1974.[2][3]
Academic career
In the 1970s, while completing her dissertation about class differences in Algeria,[2] Lazreg began teaching sociology at Hunter College.[3] She published her first book, The Emergence of Classes in Algeria, in 1976, which was based on her dissertation.[2]
Over the next decade, she taught at Brooklyn College, Hampshire College, The New School, and Sarah Lawrence College, before returning to Hunter College in 1988 as a sociology professor.[2][3]
In 1995, Lazreg spoke at the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women.[4]
From 1999 to 2000, Lazreg worked with the World Bank on programs which aimed to advance opportunities for women and girls.[2]
Her 2017 book, Foucault's Orient, argued that Foucault was biased toward Western intellectual traditions.[2]
In 2019, Lazreg published her first and only novel, The Awakening of the Mother, under the pen name Meriem Belkelthoum. The French-language novel was based on her childhood in Algeria.[2]
Lazreg retired in September 2023.[3]
Personal life
Publications
Books
- The Emergence of Classes in Algeria (1976)[1][5][6]
- Lazreg, Marnia (1995). The Eloquence of Silence: Algerian Women in Question. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-86702-3.[7][8]
- Lazreg, Marnia (2008). Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-17348-1.[9][10][11][12]
- Questioning the Veil (2009)[13]
- Lazreg, Marnia (2017). Foucault's Orient: The Conundrum of Cultural Difference, From Tunisia to Japan. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-78533-623-2.[14][15]
- Lazreg, Marnia (2021). Islamic Feminism and the Discourse of Post-liberation: The Cultural Turn in Algeria. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-1-351-80488-2.
Chapters
- Lazreg, Marnia (1990). "Feminism and Difference: The Perils of Writing as a Woman on Women in Algeria". In Hirsch, Marianne; Keller, Evelyn Fox (eds.). Conflicts in Feminism. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-27525-9.
- Lazreg, Marnia (1994). "Women's Experience and Feminist Epistemology: A critical neo-rationalist approach". Knowing the Difference. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203216125-5 (inactive 12 July 2025). ISBN 978-0-203-21612-5.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link) - Lazreg, Marnia (2000). "The Triumphant Discourse of Global Feminism: Should Other Women Be Known?". Going Global. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315864235-3 (inactive 12 July 2025). ISBN 978-1-315-86423-5.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link) - Lazreg, Marnia (2000). "Citizenship and Gender in Algeria". In Joseph, Saud (ed.). Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2865-1.
- Lazreg, Marnia (2008). "Consequences of Political Liberalization and Sociocultural Mobilization for Women in Algeria, Egypt and Jordan". Governing Women. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203892503-5 (inactive 12 July 2025). ISBN 978-0-203-89250-3.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
Articles
- Lazreg, Marnia (1983). "The Reproduction of Colonial Ideology: The Case of the Kabyle Berbers". Arab Studies Quarterly. 5 (4): 380–395. ISSN 0271-3519. JSTOR 41857696.
- Lazreg, Marnia (1990). "Gender and Politics in Algeria: Unraveling the Religious Paradigm". Signs. 15 (4): 755–780. doi:10.1086/494627.
- Lazreg, Marnia (1998). "Islamism and the Recolonization of Algeria". Arab Studies Quarterly. 20 (2): 43–58. ISSN 0271-3519. JSTOR 41858247.
