Zohra Drif

Zohra Drif-Bitat
Zohra Drif
Born Zohra Drif
1934
Tissemsilt, Algeria
Nationality Algerian
Alma mater University of Algiers
Occupation Lawyer (now Retired)
Organization Armée de Libération Nationale (ALN)
Movement Front de Libération Nationale (FLN)
Religion Islam
Spouse(s) Rabah Bitat (1962-2000)

Zohra Drif Bitat (Arabic: زهرة ظريف بيطاط, born in 1934) is a retired Algerian lawyer and the vice-president of the Council of the Nation, the upper house of the Algerian Parliament.[1] She is best known for her activities on behalf of the National Liberation Front during the Algerian War of Independence.

Milk Bar Café bombing

Drif was twenty years old and a student in the Faculty of Law at the University of Algiers when, on 30 September 1956, she set a bomb in the Milk Bar cafe, which killed three French youths and injured dozens in one of the first actions of the Battle of Algiers. She was captured in early October 1957 along with Saadi Yacef, reportedly her boyfriend at the time, at No. 3 Rue Caton in the Casbah of Algiers by Lt. Colonel Jeanpierre and his 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment.[2] In August 1958, she was sentenced to 20 years of hard labour by the military tribunal of Algiers for terrorism, and was locked up in the women's section of the Barbarossa prison. She published a 20-page treatise, entitled The death of my brothers (French: la Mort de mes frères), in 1960, while still in prison. She was pardoned by Charles de Gaulle on the occasion of Algerian independence in 1962.[3]

Personal life

Drif is the widow of former Algerian president Rabah Bitat.[1] She is reported to be a close friend of current president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Zohra Drif appelle à un grand débat national", El Annabi, 8 February 2011, retrieved 2011-02-23
  2. ↑ "Capture of the Chief", Time Magazine, 7 October 1957, retrieved 2006-10-04
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Maclean, William (28 September 2005). "50 years on, Algiers bomber sees US "error" in Iraq". Reuters. Retrieved 2006-10-04.

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