Myriem dans les palmes, Novel by Mohammed Ould Cheikh, Preceded by a presentation-interview by Nadhim Chaouche, Éditions Héritage,

Myriem dans les palmes, by Mohammed Ould Cheikh (1936) , is first and foremost the affirmation of the existence of the Muslim personality in Algeria. Which was not at all obvious for the Europeans of Algeria. But not only. Myriem in the palms is a severe call to order addressed to a popular religion which had put the principle of critical thought in Islam ( tawhid ) on hold for several centuries.

Beyond that, Myriem dans les palmes is, as Ali Merad asserts, an indirect criticism of modernity in its intellectual (monist-materialist) , social and economic manifestations, a mirror to the larks for candidates for assimilation .

Myriem dans les palmes is finally a virulent challenge to the assimilationist doctrine of colonial policy. For the theorists of colonization, assimilating its essentialization to a biologically inferior race is the prerequisite for a "friction" with the European element in view of a possible access to the status of white
Myriem in the palms is "the colonial night ".

Myriem dans les palmes is the story of a Muslim woman who went through an assimilationist process by marrying a French soldier. After years of marriage, she wants to save Myriem and Jean-Hafid, her children, from the worst that awaits children from mixed couples, that is to say the assimilationist doctrine of colonial policy with its corollary: the tearing of individual consciousness between 2 identities (modern/Islamic) and 2 affiliations (dominated/dominant).

Khadidja Debussy, the heroine, will take the plunge and engage in an assimilationist process that she will bitterly regret. She will try to save her children Myriem and Jean-Hafid from the clutches of modernity by giving them a teacher of Arabic language and Islamic religion.