Djemila Debeche (1926-2010) was born in Aïn Oulmene (Setif), Algeria, on 30 June 1926. She became early on an activist in defense of women's rights in Algeria. She was a radio journalist from 1942. In 1947, she launched a feminist monthly magazine. In that year, she also published her first novel, Leïla, jeune fille d'Algérie. The main character is like the author, is originally from the Sahara (the origin of her maternal family, about which Debeche spoke to the Algerian novelist Taos Amrouche in a radio interview here.
She continued to publish essays about the need for Algerian girls to go to school as early as 1950, when Algeria was still held back by French colonisation. In 1955, she released her second novel Aziza. Both novels are today impossible to find.
Djemila passed away in 2010, forgotten by most.
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