Eugénie Allix Luce (1804-1882) was a French educator, who founded the first French/Arab school for Muslim girls, the Luce Ben Aben School in

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

, in 1845.

Departure from France

Eugénie Luce moved to

in the 1830s, where she became a governess. She left behind her husband in France.

Luce Ben Aben School

Eugénie Luce started the Luce Ben Aben School, in 1845. It was the first Franco-Arab school for

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

girls, offering a European-style education. Girls learned French, Arabic, arithmetic, embroidery, geography, and sewing. The school was funded by the

French Algeria French Algeria ( until 1839, then afterwards; unofficially ; ), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of History of Algeria, Algerian history when the country was a colony and later an integral part of France. French rule lasted until ...

government until 1861, after which it became a

trade school A vocational school (alternatively known as a trade school, or technical school), is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary or post-secondary education designed to provide vocational ...

. Instructors taught

embroidery Embroidery is the art of decorating Textile, fabric or other materials using a Sewing needle, needle to stitch Yarn, thread or yarn. It is one of the oldest forms of Textile arts, textile art, with origins dating back thousands of years across ...

and other subjects in order to educate the girls in traditional Algerian crafts, at a time when these crafts were being replaced by machine-made imports. These goods were exported throughout Algeria, as well as Europe and the United States. The school was forced to close on 1 January 1846 because of a lack of financial support from the local French government. To seek funding, Luce sold her possessions and traveled to Paris to ask for help from the central government. After she managed to get support for the school, it was reopened in June 1846 and in January 1847 the French government formally agreed to support the school. In 1858 Luce had over 120 pupils ranging in age from four to 17. This school produced skilled embroideresses, who appeared in the London Exhibition of 1862 and in the Algerian Pavilion of the 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition at Chicago.

Death and legacy

Luce would eventually return to

Montrichard Montrichard () is a town and former commune in the Loir-et-Cher department, Centre-Val de Loire, France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Montrichard Val de Cher. During the French Revolution, the commune was known as . ...

, in France, where she died in 1882. After Luce's departure, her daughter, and then her granddaughter Madame Ben-Aben, continued to run the school until the granddaughter died in 1915.

References

* Harrat, Ahlem and Meberbeche Senouci, Faiza, Women's Education in Colonial Algeria: Emancipation, Alienation, and the Aphasia of Love in Assia Djebar's L’Amour, la fantasia (1985) (2020). AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 4, Number2. May 2020, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3616523 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3616523 * ROGERS, REBECCA. A Frenchwoman's Imperial Story: Madame Luce in Nineteenth-Century Algeria. 1st ed., Stanford University Press, 2013. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvqsdtgp. Accessed 5 Dec. 2022. * Ahlem Harrat
Women’s Education in Colonial Algeria: Emancipation, Alienation, and the Aphasia of Love in Assia Djebar’s L’Amour, la fantasia (1985)
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Luce, Eugenie 1804 births 1882 deaths Education in Algeria People from Loir-et-Cher People of French Algeria 19th-century French educators 19th-century French women educators

Departure from France

Luce Ben Aben School

Death and legacy

References

Further reading