Girls of the Kabylie Region in the 2000s

In this issue of the Cahiers of the Research Center in Social and Cultural Anthropology, we present the findings of the research team titled “Girls in the Kabylie Region: Between Presence and Absence in Social Life.” The uniqueness of the sample targeted in this project lies in its focus on a group of girls living in rural areas, who engage in household-based professional activities and who dropped out of school at an early age. This group of girls and the rural environment in which they live represent the two main variables that define the scope of this project, which was carried out using qualitative approaches. These two elements also signal the limitations of the results we will present. In their lived reality, girls inherit a social status associated with a lower position compared to their male counterparts. However, this inheritance, shaped by social conditions and ensuring the reproduction of the community primarily through women, is not reproduced in a systematic or predetermined manner. In other words, the image of women subjected to male dominance only exists within the mythical memories of the past. This image cannot guarantee the social reconstitution that confines women to limited roles and knowledge, as dictated by the logic of group affiliations.