Fadela Amara – Dornröschen?

Actually Fadela Amara is far from being a “Sleeping Beauty” of any kind but she could well prove to be both the real thorn and rose in French president’s Nicolas Sarkozy’s government.

Along with justice minister, Rachida Dati, and the junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade, Amara forms part of the triumvirate of women of immigrant origin to be welcomed into the government.

But of the three, Amara’s appointment as junior minister of urban policy has been by far the most unexpected and intriguing. And unlike the other two she is the only one to have been given a portfolio related to her origins.

The 43-year-old “ghetto warrior” as she has been dubbed by one newspaper is one of 11 children born into an Algerian Kabyle family and has built up a reputation for her work as a feminist in France’s immigrant suburbs.

She’s a committed Socialist whom Sarkozy has charged with the delicate task of putting together an action plan to deal with problems in the country’s deprived inner city suburbs.

And if anyone has the credibility, drive and integrity to get things moving, it has to be Amara.

Her career has been unconventional in French terms, as it has been built upon her experience as an activist in several pressure groups, rather than the classic route of higher education.

A fierce anti-racist and feminist, she has spent years campaigning for women’s rights and although a practising Moslem has sometimes drawn severe criticism from within her own community.

Some claim she has helped “demonise” the public perception in France of young North African men and she came under fire for her support of the ban on wearing headscarves in state schools. Amara defends her stance by claiming that the headscarf has less to do with tradition, as other French feminists might insist, and is instead “archaic and a clear visible symbol of the subjugation of women”.

Obviously Amara is not one to mince her words and her fighting talk is also matched by action.

Back in 1983, she took part in the landmark equal rights march for the second generation of North African immigrants. It started in Marseille with a handful of activists but by the time it reached Paris it was almost 100,000-strong.

And Amara was back on the streets in 2003 following two high-profile cases of violence against young Muslim women in the suburbs. This time the march, which she organised, was to highlight the plight of millions of women in inner city suburbs. By the time it reached Paris more than 30,000 were demonstrating under the banner “Ni Putes, Ni Soumises” (Neither whores,nor slaves) – a movement which has since become one of the most vociferous feminist movements in the country.

The roots of much of Amara’s self-admitted “anger” at social injustice can be traced back to the death of one of her brothers when she was just 14. Malik, five years old at the time, was the victim of a drunk-driving accident. Amara looked on as the police, rather than charging the motorist, sided with him and blamed her parents, “able to mistreat them because they were Arabs,” she says.

The trappings of office have so far not changed Amara’s lifestyle. She has refused to accept the apartment that goes with the job, preferring instead to remain living in the suburbs of Paris. And somehow it’s hard to imagine her posing for the front cover of the weekly glossies as Rachida Dati did for last week’s issue of Paris Match.

Her formula for resolving the causes of the problems that set the inner city suburbs alight in 2005 and saw them flare up again just last month – is eagerly waited.

The extent of the problem and how to break the cycle of chronic unemployment, poverty and a marginalised youth may seem insurmountable. But it could prove crucial in the long run to Sarkozy’s presidency.

And if anyone is up to the challenge, it has to be Fadela Amara.

Let’s hope so.



JS