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This article examines Yamina Benguigui's filmmaking in Mémoires d'immigrés, Le Plafond de verre / Les Défricheurs, and 9-3 mémoire d'un territoire, three documentaries that explore policies of the French government and their consequences on postcolonial immigrants and their children in France. Benguigui's documentaries intertwine official and personal testimonies while erasing the director's presence. I analyse the implications of this (failed) erasure, as well as the limits of Benguigui's projects. Benguigui's attempts to stage a dialogue between the majority population and minorities seem to depend on the suppression of controversies. The traces that remain of the interviewer point to the ever-looming presence of the director in shaping the reality presented: a reality that glosses over a failing educational system and Islamophobia.

Ben Jelloun's L'Islam expliqué aux enfants and Meddeb's La Maladie de l'islam, both prompted by 9/11, share the similar intent and didactic function of countering reductive representations of Islam fostered by Islamic extremists and the media, and of tracing historically the link between terrorism and the Muslim faith. Taking into account their location (Ben Jelloun and Meddeb are prominent Maghrebian intellectuals who have been residing in France, for decades), this article demonstrates that these essays do not foster a better understanding of Islam by their French readership. In particular, thay fail to present a balanced account of the issues surrounding the headscarf affair in France and contribute to the confusion between Islam and terrorism, in part because international news bears on domestic issues. In addition, this article addresses 9/11's impact on the translation of literature from the Francophone Arab world.

Une analyse de la nouvelle ajoutée et des changements apportés au paratexte dans la réédition de Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement montre que la disparition de la servante renforce les limites de Djebar, déjà perceptibles dans son analyse des tableaux de Picasso et de Delacroix dans la postface.