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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.

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. As a child, she refused to wear a headscarf. Lazreg was able to attend a school for French children, and earned a French Baccalauréat in Philosophy and Mathematics in 1960, during the Algerian War of Independence. Following the war, her family moved to Algiers, where she worked for the city's municipal administration.

She went on to receive a Licence-ès-Lettres in English Literature from the University of Algiers in 1966. After graduating, she began working for Sonatrach, and was sent to work at its New York office in 1967. While working in New York, she attended New York University, earning her master's degree in 1970 and her PhD in sociology in 1974.

Academic career

In the 1970s, while completing her dissertation about class differences in Algeria, Lazreg began teaching sociology at Hunter College. She published her first book, The Emergence of Classes in Algeria, in 1976, which was based on her dissertation.

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.

In 1995, Lazreg spoke at the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women.

From 1999 to 2000, Lazreg worked with the World Bank on programs which aimed to advance opportunities for women and girls.

Her 2017 book, Foucault's Orient, argued that Foucault was biased toward Western intellectual traditions.

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.

Lazreg retired in September 2023.

Personal life

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

Publications

Books

• The Emergence of Classes in Algeria (1976)
• Lazreg, Marnia (1995). The Eloquence of Silence: Algerian Women in Question. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-86702-3.
• Lazreg, Marnia (2008). Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-17348-1.
• Questioning the Veil (2009)
• Lazreg, Marnia (2017). Foucault's Orient: The Conundrum of Cultural Difference, From Tunisia to Japan. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-78533-623-2.
• 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 1 November 2024). ISBN 978-0-203-21612-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
• Lazreg, Marnia (2000). "The Triumphant Discourse of Global Feminism: Should Other Women Be Known?". Going Global. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315864235-3 (inactive 1 November 2024). ISBN 978-1-315-86423-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (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 1 November 2024). ISBN 978-0-203-89250-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (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.

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.

• 1941 births
• 2024 deaths
• 20th-century Algerian women writers
• 21st-century Algerian women writers
• 21st-century novelists
• Algerian novelists
• Algerian sociologists
• Algerian women novelists
• Algerian women sociologists
• Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
• Hunter College alumni
• New York University alumni
• People from Mostaganem
• People of French Algeria
• University of Algiers alumni