Zohra Drif was born in Algeria on September 28th, 1934. She was born into an upper-class family. Because of this, Zohra was part of the apparent ten percent of the Algerian population who were educated. She attended an elite secondary school. Later on she studied law in the Faculty of Law at the University of Algeria. However, Zohra dropped out after the FLN called a student strike. The FLN, or the Algerian National Liberation Front is a nationalist political party. During her life as a student, Zohra developed ideas that were feminist and anti-colonial. She studied periods of time like the Enlightenment and the French Revolution of 1789, both of which inspired her ideology. After World War 2, France colonized Algeria. Zohra was angered by this, she had anti-colonial views, and decided to do something about it. Zohra worked quite actively in the FLN, participating in French bombings. She talks about this frequently while making sure to emphasize how significant women were to the revolution effort. Zohra was twenty yards old when she was arrested for the bombing of the Milk Bar Café. She was imprisoned for five years in various French prisons. She was released when Algeria gained its independence in 1962. Zohra went on to creating an organization of youth where she helped the orphans of the Algerian War of Independence. She worked as a criminal lawyer, becoming one of the first women elected to the Algerian Council of the Nation. Zohra was considered a heroine of the war by her generation. She criticized the Family Code, Islamic fundamentalism, and gender inequality in Algeria after the war. Today, Zohra is currently a lawyer. She also wrote a memoir called Inside the Battle of Algiers which gives her account of the war, highlighting the heroic deeds done by her comrades.

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