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Autism is a specific disorder characterised by significant impairment of communication and social interaction. The birth of an autistic child affects the whole family, especially the parents. How they address parenthood, considered as the interactive process between parents and child, ensuring the child’s development and access in turn to future parenting is heavily impacted. The authors report on clinical research conducted in Constantine, using individual, semi-directive interviews with 18 parents of autistic children whose results were subjected to thematic discourse analysis. The study provides an understanding of parenthood in the still patriarchal context of the Algerian family, caught up between modernity and traditional beliefs, and of the challenges faced by these parents in the absence of specific care and schooling structures.