(1939 - )

Born in 1939 in Algeria, activist and author Marie-Aimé Helie-Lucas was active during and after the Algerian national liberation struggle. She studied sociology and anthropology and taught for twelve years at the University of Algiers. A founding member of AAWORD, the Association of American Women for Research on Development, Marie-Aimé Helie-Lucas was also a research fellow at the Institute of Social Studies in the Department of Women’s Studies at the Hague, Holland from 1983-1984. In 1984 she started The Network of Women Living Under Muslim Law, an organization of women and women’s groups from seventeen countries that assists Muslim women oppressed in the name of Muslim law.

In 1987, Marie-Aimé Helie-Lucas presented her paper “Women, Nationalism, and Religion in the Algerian Liberation Struggle” to the International Symposium on Women in the Military System at Siunto Baths, Finland. In this fascinating and important paper she identifies some of the obstacles women and women’s rights advocates face in realizing their cause.