Émilie Busquant (1901–1953) was a French

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, anarcho-syndicalist and anti-colonial activist who was married to the Algerian nationalist leader Messali Hadj. She is notable for her involvement in the creation of the Algerian flag.

Biography

One of nine children, Émilie grew up in the working-class town of Neuves-Maisons in Eastern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

where her father worked in the local steel mill. Her father was involved in anarcho-syndicalism and she was engaged politically from an early age. She moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and worked in a department store before meeting a young Algerian migrant and political activist, Messali Hadj. As was often the case for working-class couples, they moved in together without officially getting married. Their partnership, which produced two children, was marked by a shared commitment to progressive and anticolonial causes. During Messali's long spells in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

, Émilie often spoke on his behalf and used her position as a Frenchwoman to pour particular scorn on France's declared commitment to " civilising" Algeria. She is perhaps best known as the creator of the Algerian flag. While there is some dispute over who exactly designed green and white with red star and crescent symbol, Émilie is generally credited as having sewed the first version of the flag. She died in

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

in 1953, while her husband was in exile in France. He was refused permission to visit her on her death bed. A cortege of 10,000 followed her coffin, draped in the Algerian flag, through the streets of the Algerian capital on its way to the port. Her funeral in Neuves-Maisons was attended by delegation from the major parties of the radical Left and her husband, under police surveillance, gave a eulogy recalling her activism and declaring her "the symbol of the union of the Algerian and French peoples in their shared struggle". A long forgotten figure, her hometown erected a plaque in her memory on the fiftieth anniversary of her death in 2003 while a 2015 documentary by director Rabah Zanoun introduced a French audience to her story for the first time.

Biography

See also

References

Further reading