Born January 18, 1938 in El-Asnam (today Chlef), Hassiba Ben Bouali y began her primary studies, which she continued at the Aïn Zerga school, in Algiers, where her parents had settled in 1947.
She obtained the primary studies certificate in 1950 and entered the Pasteur high school (now an annex of the Central Faculty), where she studied until the second year. Many testimonies present her as a particularly alert, curious and sensitive teenager.
Thus, through scouting, she went on long hikes across the country and discovered the deplorable living conditions of the Algerian peasantry. The display of injustice deeply revolts her. Hassiba Ben Bouali dreamed of becoming a nurse but she could only work in a social office, where she would complete her vision of the situation of Algerians.
Her awareness led her to become active at the age of sixteen within the General Union of Algerian Muslim Students. From then on, she became more and more involved in the nationalist fight, and, towards the end of 1956, she joined with other young girls one of the networks of fedayeen who distinguished themselves during the battle of Algiers.
She was thus part of a group responsible for making bombs and placing them at the operation sites. But French intelligence services eventually gathered information on this group. The clandestine bomb manufacturing workshop was immediately raided and numerous arrests took place.
Hassiba Ben Bouali is then forced to leave her home and join the Casbah, citadel of the revolution patrolled by colonial soldiers. It was at this time that the repression in Algiers intensified. The French authorities wanted to put an end to the urban networks of the FLN, which were sowing panic among settlers and whose spectacular actions enjoyed a large international audience.
In February 1957, Larbi Ben M'hidi, head of the autonomous zone of Algiers, was arrested and assassinated. Other arrests took place in the following months. On October 8, 1957, Hassiba Ben Bouali was in a cache at number five rue des Abderames, in the heart of the Casbah, in the company of Ali la Pointe and little Omar, aged twelve.
At nightfall, the house was surrounded by French paratroopers. The three fedayins were summoned to surrender. Faced with their refusal, the French soldiers blew up the house. Hassiba Ben Bouali and his companions perished under the rubble as well as 17 Algerians whose houses were blown away by the explosion.
The martyrdom of Hassiba Ben Bouali became an additional reason for the determination of the Algerian people as well as a striking illustration of the participation of Algerian women in the liberating struggle.