The izli. A Berber poetic genre as a form of female expression in a traditional Muslim society

Abstract

Throughout history, women have usually played a secondary role, and only the ones who have performed an exceptional task have been recognized. This fact is specially observed in Kabylie (Algeria) where women have suffered a double discrimination, as woman and as Berber. Their silence has been more evident due to the fact of being part of an oral culture that was ignored for centuries. The few Berber women whose names we know are the ones that lead an extraordinary life halfway between myth and reality. If we look over most of the works relating Kabylie of the 18th and 19th centuries we notice that only male authors discussed women’s role and that women were not able to take the floor to claim a greater social role that they lacked at that time. However, any of these circumstances have prevented Kabyle women from raising their voices to externalize their desires, frustrations, feelings and concerns. This article aims to analyze a particular literary genre used as a medium to express all the things that could not be told in the sein of an extremely exclusionary society regarding women. The izli, as a sentimental or erotic poem, but also as a critical poem, shows between its lines plenty of shades and connotations. Through them women give free rein to the intimate expression of a hidden feminine universe and of a collective mythology. They invest the symbols of the dominant society with a new sense that will allow them to free themselves and to denounce their oppressions.