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Jeanne Françoise Morand, known as Jane Morand, born in Bey on 17 August 1887, and died on 26 February 1969, in Fitz-James, was a French seamstress, housekeeper, and individualist anarchist activist. A prominent figure in the French anarchist movement, she organized the Comité Féminin in the 1910s, one of the leading anarcho-feminist and feminist organizations of the time. Morand is also known for, along with Henriette Tilly, helping to spread feminism within anarchist circles and influencing Le Cinéma du Peuple in the decision to produce Les Misères de l’aiguille, the first feminist film in history.
Sentenced to life imprisonment for aiding other anarchists in fleeing France during World War I, she was released in 1924. By 1932, she began to exhibit signs of mental illness, including paranoid delusions, and ended her life in a miserable state, moving between various care institutions.
Biography
Jeanne Françoise Morand was born in Bey on 17 August 1887, in Saône-et-Loire. Her father was an anarcho-syndicalist laborer, and she began working as a seamstress in Saint-Marcel. Later, at the age of 22, she left Saône-et-Loire for Paris, where she started reading Le Libertaire and attending anarchist public discussions. She had two sisters, Alice and Marie, who joined her in the capital and also became involved in French libertarian circles. During this period, she became an active militant and was arrested multiple times by the police for "disturbing public order, putting up posters, insults, assault and battery, rebellion, and participating in forbidden demonstrations". She did not hesitate to resist, defend herself, and even bite the police officers who arrested her. In 1906, for instance, along with Albert Libertad and a man named Millet, Morand was arrested for fighting with a subway inspector and a police officer.
For two years, Morand worked as a domestic servant for the Henry family on Boulevard Saint-Martin before leaving her job. She then moved into the headquarters of the individualist anarchist newspaper, L'Anarchie. The activist became involved with Albert Libertad before separating from him in early 1908, although she still assisted him during the final years of his life later that same year.
After Albert Libertad's death, Morand succeeded him at the anarchist newspaper L'Anarchie and managed its operations alongside Armandine Mahé, the sister of Anna Mahé. However, following her arrest for participating in a protest against Georges Clemenceau—motivated by his decision to erect a monument honoring Charles Floquet, a politician implicated in the Panama scandal—she was no longer able to manage the newspaper and was replaced by Lucien Lecourtier. In 1910, she began a relationship with Jacques Long and lived with him, earning a living by doing housework for private households. Morand maintained connections with anti-colonial circles and, in 1912, briefly had a relationship with Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, an Indian revolutionary, who moved in with her.