On July 13, 2001, in Hassi Messaoud, an oil town in southern Algeria, following a virulent preaching by the imam, nearly 500 men attacked and tortured some fifty women during a punitive expedition. Public humiliation, contempt for family, silence from the foreign press and fear of reprisals follow this nightmare night that most victims choose to forget. But some refuse to resign themselves and demand the conviction of the culprits - Rahmouna Salah and Fatiha Maamoura fought until the trial. From their childhood in patriarchal families to the birth of their children, through their marriages, repudiations and divorces, they recount the difficulty of living outside the yoke of men in a society that is experiencing terrible upheavals.