Danièle Djamila Amrane-Minne, French-Algerian political activist, Died at 77

Danièle Minne was born on August 13, 1939, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, and died in February 2017.

She was one of the few European girls convicted for assisting the FLN during the Algerian War.

Amrane-Minne’s mother Jacqueline Netter-Minne-Guerroudj and her stepfather Abdelkader Guerroudj, were both condemned to death as accomplices of Fernand Iveton, the only European who was guillotined for his part in the Algerian revolt.

Amrane-Minne’s mother was never executed, partly due to a campaign on her behalf conducted by Simone de Beauvoir; her stepfather was also freed.

She joined the struggle when she was 17, going underground under the nom de guerre of Djamila.

Amrane-Minne was arrested and jailed in December 1956, she was sentenced, on 4 December 1957, to 7 years in prison by a juvenile tribunal.

She had been freed after independence in 1962, Amrane-Minne wrote a PhD dissertation on the participation of Algerian women in the war, based on interviews with eighty-eight women between 1978 and 1986; the dissertation was later published as a book, Des femmes dans la guerre d’Algérie (Karthala, Paris).

That book was the basis for the film Algeria: Women at War by Parminder Vir.

She became Djamila Amrane by marriage in 1964.

Later, Danièle Minne worked at the University of Algiers but, by 1999, was a professor of history and feminist studies at the University of Toulouse.

Danièle Djamila Amrane-Minne passed away at 77 years old.