Finally, my father, an Algerian peasant's son turned professor, was forced to stop teaching at the university and to flee his apartment, but what I will never forget about Mahfoud Bennoune, my dad, was that like so many other Algerian intellectuals, he refused to leave the country and he continued to publish pointed criticisms, both of the fundamentalists and sometimes of the government they battled.
I sidste ende var min far, søn af en landmand  og senere professor, tvunget til at stoppe sin undervisning på universitetet og til at flygte fra hans lejlighed. Men det, jeg aldrig vil glemme om min far, Mahfoud Bennoune, var, at som så mange andre algierske intellektuelle, nægtede han at forlade landet, og han fortsatte med offentligt at rette kritik både imod fundamentalisterne og ind imellem den regering, de kæmpede imod.