Marnia Lazreg

Marnia Lazreg
مارنيا لزرق
Born	(1941-01-10)January 10, 1941 Mostaganem, French Algeria
Died	January 13, 2024(2024-01-13) (aged 83) Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S

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, raising 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

Lazreg had two sons from a marriage with Mark Woodcock, whom she divorced.[2][3] She died in Manhattan on January 13, 2024, at the age of 83, while undergoing treatment for cancer.[1][2]

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/women-experience-feminist-epistemology-marnia-lazreg (inactive 1 November 2024). ISBN 978-0-203-21612-5.
• Lazreg, Marnia (2000). "The Triumphant Discourse of Global Feminism: Should Other Women Be Known?". Going Global. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315864235-3/triumphant-discourse-global-feminism-women-known-marnia-lazreg (inactive 1 November 2024). ISBN 978-1-315-86423-5.
• 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/consequences-political-liberalization-sociocultural-mobilization-women-algeria-egypt-jordan-marnia-lazreg (inactive 1 November 2024). ISBN 978-0-203-89250-3.

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.

References

1. Nossiter, Adam (March 12, 2024). "Marnia Lazreg, Scholar of Algeria and the Veil, Dies at 83". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2024-03-12. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
2. Murphy, Brian (2024-03-01). "Marnia Lazreg, wide-ranging scholar of women in Muslim world, dies at 83". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
3. "Marnia Lazreg, Pathbreaking Hunter Sociology Professor, 83". Hunter College. 2024-02-26. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
4. "Women share experiences in conference workshops". Lawrence Journal-World. Associated Press. 1995-09-01. pp. 2A. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
5. Zghal, Abdelkader (February 1978). "Marnia Lazreg, The Emergence of Classes in Algeria: A Study of Colonialism and Socio-Political Change (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1976). xv + 252 pp., tables, figs., biblio., glossary. $20.00". Review of Middle East Studies. 12 (1): 28–29. doi:10.1017/S002631840000585X. ISSN 0026-3184.
6. Devine, James N. (April 1980). "Book Reviews : The Emergence of Classes in Algeria: A Study of Colonialism and Socio-Political Change by Marnia Lazreg Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1976, 252 pp., no index $20 hb". Review of Radical Political Economics. 12 (1): 64–67. doi:10.1177/048661348001200105. ISSN 0486-6134.
7. Tétreault, Mary Ann (1995). "The Eloquence of Silence: Algerian Women in Question, by Marnia Lazreg (Book Review)". Middle East Journal. 49 (2). Washington. Retrieved 2024-03-13 – via ProQuest.
8. Clancy-Smith, Julia (December 13, 1995). "The Eloquence of Silence: Algerian Women in Question, by Marnia Lazreg. 270 pages, index, glossary, references cited, notes. New York & London: Routledge, 1994. $16.95 (Paper) ISBN 0-415-90731-4". Review of Middle East Studies. 29 (2): 176–177. doi:10.1017/S0026318400031643. S2CID 164674988 – via Cambridge University Press.
9. Ruf, Werner (December 13, 2008). "Torture and the twilight of empire. From Algiers to Baghdad". The Journal of North African Studies. 13 (4): 561–563. doi:10.1080/13629380802343723. S2CID 144785420 – via CrossRef.
10. Humphrey, Michael (March 2009). "Review: Violence and Vulnerability: Marnia Lazreg, Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad. Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2008, 354 pp., ISBN 069113135X, US$29.00". International Sociology. 24 (2): 213–216. doi:10.1177/0268580908101072. ISSN 0268-5809.
11. McDougall, James (October 2009). "Marnia Lazreg . Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad .(Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity.)Princeton : Princeton University Press . 2008 . Pp. xii, 335. $29.95". The American Historical Review. 114 (4): 1025–1027. doi:10.1086/ahr.114.4.1025. ISSN 0002-8762.
12. Bozarslan, Hamit (2010). "MARNIA LAZREG Torture and the Twilight of Empire : From Algiers to Baghdad Princeton, N. J./Oxford, Princeton University Press, 2008, XII + 335 pages. DARIUS M. REJALI Torture and Democracy Princeton, N. J./Oxford, Princeton University Press, 2007, XXIII". Critique Internationale (in French). 46 (1): 171–180. doi:10.3917/crii.046.0171. ISSN 1290-7839.
13. Varisco, Daniel Martin (2012-07-01). "Marnia Lazreg: Questioning the veil: open letters to Muslim women". Contemporary Islam. 6 (2): 215–218. doi:10.1007/s11562-010-0152-5. ISSN 1872-0226.
14. Medien, Kathryn (July 1, 2019). "Foucault's Orient: The Conundrum of Cultural Difference, from Tunisia to Japan". Journal of Middle East Women's Studies. 15 (2): 229–231. doi:10.1215/15525864-7491115. S2CID 199141230.
15. Anderson, Kevin B. (September 2019). "Foucault's Orient: The Conundrum of Cultural Difference, From Tunisia to Japan". Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews. 48 (5): 551–553. doi:10.1177/0094306119867060w. ISSN 0094-3061. S2CID 203480504.