Fatima-Zohra Imalayen, known by her pen name Assia Djebar, was an Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her feminist stance. She is "frequently associated with women's writing movements, her novels are clearly focused on the creation of a genealogy of Algerian women, and her political stance is virulently anti-patriarchal as much as it is anti-colonial." Djebar is considered to be one of North Africa's pre-eminent and most influential writers. She was elected to the Académie française on 16 June 2005, the first writer from the Maghreb to achieve such recognition. For the entire body of her work she was awarded the 1996 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. She was often named as a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Catherine Robbe-Grillet is a French writer, dominatrix, photographer, theatre and film actress of Armenian descent who has published sadomasochistic writings under the pseudonyms Jean de Berg and Jeanne de Berg.
Jeanne Mas is a French pop singer. She is well known in France, Switzerland, Canada and Belgium for a number of hit singles released in the 1980s. Her first success was "Toute première fois" in 1984. This song was simultaneously released in the United Kingdom in English. Two of her singles charted at number one in France: "Johnny, Johnny" and "En rouge et noir" in 1985 and 1986, respectively. Her 1980's albums are good examples of the Euro disco electropop style popular in Continental Europe at the time, featuring synthesizers and very catchy melodies.
Maïwenn Le Besco, known mononymously as Maïwenn, is a French actress and filmmaker.
Elements of both sides in the Algerian War—the French Armed Forces and the opposing Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN)—used deliberate torture during that conflict (1954–1962), creating an ongoing public controversy. Pierre Vidal-Naquet, a renowned French historian, estimated that there were "hundreds of thousands of instances of torture" by the French military in Algeria. The FLN engaged in the use of torture against pro-French and uncommitted members of the Algerian population in retaliation for the French's use of torture.
Danielle Collobert was a French author, poet and journalist.
Major General Smain Lamari was the head of an Algerian intelligence service, the Department of Counter-Espionage and Internal Security.
Éditions Denoël is a French publishing house founded in 1930. Acquired by Éditions Gallimard in 1951, it publishes collections spanning fiction, non-fiction and comic books. It published some of the most important French authors of the interwar period, including Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Louis Aragon and Antonin Artaud.
Jules Roy was a French writer. "Prolific and polemical" Roy, born an Algerian pied noir and sent to a Roman Catholic seminary, used his experiences in the French colony and during his service in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War as inspiration for a number of his works. He began writing in 1946, while still serving in the military, and continued to publish fiction and historical works after his resignation in 1953 in protest of the First Indochina War. He was an outspoken critic of French colonialism and the Algerian War of Independence and later civil war, as well as a strongly religious man.
Jeanne Cherhal is a French singer-songwriter.
Estienne Roger was a francophone printer, bookseller and publisher of sheet music working in the Netherlands.
Les Innocents is a 1987 French drama film directed by André Téchiné and starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Simon de La Brosse and Abdel Kechiche. The plot follows a girl who, whilst looking for her runaway brother, encounters a number of people who influence her life. The film was partially inspired by a William Faulkner novel. Téchiné uses several French-Arab relationships to mirror the tensions between France and its former colonies.
Montpellier Hérault Sport Club Féminines is a French women's football club based in Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone, a commune in the arrondissement of Montpellier. The club was founded in 1990. Montpellier play in the Division 1 Féminine having finished in 4th place in the 2009–10 season. The club is currently managed by Frédéric Mendy.
Mohamed Benameur was an Algerian football player. He represented Algeria at the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship.
Maïssa Bey is the nom de plume of Samia Benameur, an Algerian educator and writer.
Leïla Marouane (born in 1960) is a Tunisian-born French Algerian journalist and creative writer. Leïla Marouane is a pseudonym; her full name is Leyla Zineb Mechentel. She is an author of novels and short fiction which have received a number of awards within the French-language literature community.
Actes Sud is a French publishing house based in Arles. It was founded in 1978 by author Hubert Nyssen. By 2013, the company, then headed by Nyssen's daughter, Françoise Nyssen, had an annual turnover of 60 million euros and 60 staff members.
Jeanne Scelles-Millie was a French architectural engineer and author who was born in Algeria and lived there until it gained independence from France. She was interested in inter-faith dialog between Christians, Jews and Muslims. She published several collections of North African folk tales and legends. She and her husband Jean Scelles were active in fighting prostitution.
Jeanne Faivre d'Arcier is a French novelist, short-story writer and writer of children's stories.
