The roles of women in independence movements across the Middle East were as varied as those of their male counterparts, although probably not as well remembered. Many women rebelled within traditional female spaces, as defined by colonizers and male citizens, rather than competing for roles in the traditional political sphere. Revolutionaries and revolutionaries risked the same dangers, but women almost invariably did not hold significant leadership positions within nationalist movements. Colonial powers often made no distinction between male and female enemy combatants, punishing both with equal severity. In both Egypt and Algeria, independence movements used a language of “women's rights” and “women's issues” to advance their goals, but in both of these countries women were particularly susceptible to the violence of war and their ” were unlikely to be addressed again after independence had been won. This strategy is not unusual in histories of colonialism and nationalism. However, it provides a starting point for examining the meaning of citizenship and offers insight into the process of nation-building. Judith Tucker examines the roles of "insurrectionary" women in nineteenth-century Egypt: their perceived place in society, the forms of rebellion they undertook, and their results. She notes that although the history of women's political involvement (at this time) cannot be written into the history of Egypt's formal political sphere, it is no less significant. She points out that only a few (female) individuals stand out against the backdrop of mainstream political history, even though independence movements clearly depend on the participation of all of society, a fact that is often overlooked in history textbooks. Women... at the center of the paper... power of the colonial power over the Algerian man. In all of these cases, women's rights were defined and manipulated by male authority figures. In both cases – Egypt and Algeria – there is the prevailing theme of women playing active roles in colonial resistance and being subject to punishment because of this, but not participation in the leadership of independence movements. Another commonality is the use of a discourse on women's rights as a tool to fight colonial powers, but once the time of nation-building came, such rights were never guaranteed. In Algeria, for example, there was reference to women "earning" their citizenship rights; which begs the question: Did every man have to earn his own “rights” too? The answer, I think, is obvious. The participation of women in the formation of the new state was vital at the time, but in many cases it was not recognized.