To Hell and Back

Samira Bellil (1972–2004) was born in Algiers and raised in France by her immigrant parents. After prosecuting her attackers, she won a small measure of justice and became a youth worker and an advocate for minority ethnic women's rights. She was chosen to represent one of the "Mariannes of Today" in an historic exhibit remaking this iconic figure of the French Republic. She died of stomach cancer at the age of thirty-one. Lucy R. McNair is the translator of The Poor Man's Son, Mouloud Feraoun's Algerian classic. Alec G. Hargreaves is the director of the Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies and Ada Belle Winthrop-King Professor of French at Florida State University.

• Acknowledgments   Introduction      1. Jaïd and K.    2. Alone    3. K. 4. "Cellar Sluts" 5. Two Families   6. The Charge     7. Mathieu  8. Runaways 9. The Grind      10. Shelter       11. Algeria 12. I remember . . .    13. Confrontation 14. That Damn Bag!      15. Swirling      16. Saint-Denis   17. My "Trial" . . .    18. The Fight     19. Grilled 20. Insaf, Barry . . .  21. Therapy 22. Let's . . . Drop It 23. "First, I Want to Thank the Honorable Judge . . ."      Epilogue: My Book Postface to the First Edition Postface to the Second Edition

"Although Bellil died of cancer at 31 in 2004, her memoir has brought widespread attention to the increasing sexual violence within these French communities, and her words give a voice to other young women who are silently suffering abuse."—Leah Strauss, Booklist