Abstract
This chapter examines the Algerian women’s movement within a holistic and global approach to the process of political transformation and state-building, wherein the woman question is systematically manipulated to ultimately consolidate the legitimacy of the Islamo-conservative rule dominated by the military, to the detriment of accountability before the law and wide democratic participation in the management of politics. The chapter examines the relationship between Islam as a state religion and domestic violence against women, and it considers the manifold resistance of women against this Islamic violence during the post-colonial period. Feminist activists have used the political opening of autocratic rule to set up NGOs and employ political activism to wage struggles against gender discrimination.
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Notes
- 1.
This movie was produced and directed by Italian Gillo Pontecorvo.
- 2.
Djurdjura is a region in Kabylia, Algeria. On March 8, 1995, the bones of Lalla Fatma N’Soumer were finally repatriated to the national martyrs square in El Alia, Algiers. It took 132 years to consecrate this great revolutionary as a national heroine.
- 3.
Joseph, S. “Gender and Citizenship in Middle Eastern States.” In MERIP, N° 1998 Available from: http://www.merip.org/mer/mer198/gender-citizenship-middle-eastern-states.
- 4.
Tlemçani, R. 2009. “Femmes et politique en Algérie.” In Maghreb-Machrek, L’Algérie face aux crises, N° 200, Eté 2009, p. 24.
- 5.
While modernity generally refers to progressive social development, modernization is more linked with technological advancement.
- 6.
- 7.
These verses have been used as grounds for divorce when women refused to contribute financially to household expenses.
- 8.
Tlemçani, R. “La violence contre les femmes et la Montée des groupes islamiques en Algérie,” International Forum, The Escalation of Violence against Women the Mena Region, May 29–31, 2015, Fez, Morocco.
- 9.
Ijtihad is an Islamic legal concept allowing trained jurists or scholars to put forth independent interpretations in instances where the Qur’an and Hadith/Sunnah do not provide clear direction for specific decisions. During the early years of Islam, when the shari’a was first being formulated, Ijtihad was a common practice. It was a religious duty for a mujtahid (renewer) to conduct legal rulings using Ijtihad. In the fourth century of Hijrah, a person called al-Qaffal (closer) issued a fatwa “closing the door of Ijtihad.” Since then, governments and religious establishments have kept the doors of Ijtihad closed. This decision has resulted in chronic intellectual stagnation and has had a negative impact on modernity and secularization.
- 10.
On October 5, 1988, Algerians took to the streets across the country, ransacked stores, and tore down symbols of the then prevailing single-party system. A new constitution was drafted which legalized political pluralism. More critically, Islamist groups managed to set up political parties which clearly preached violence against working women.
- 11.
Zahia Smail Salhi, Gender and Violence in Algeria Women’s Resistance against the Islamist Femicide. Available from: http://www.lse.ac.uk/middleEastCentre/events/2011/Zahia%20Smail%20Salhi.aspx. [Accessed on November 11, 2011].
- 12.
The argument was that the veil protects women from the predation of men; specifically, from sexual harassment and or rape. According to Marnia Lazreg, while the veil is supposedly a requirement for pious women, it is really an expression of men’s feelings and identities. She argues that the veil in fact protects a man’s own sexual identity “by signaling to other men that one’s wife, sister, or sometimes daughter is off limits to them.” Lazreg, Marnia, 1994, The Eloquence of Silence: Algerian Women in Question. Routledge, New York, p. 219.
- 13.
Labidi, Lilia Islam and Women’s Rights in Tunisia. Available from: http://www.orient-gesellschaft.at/ipw2005/ipw-lapidi.pdf.
- 14.
Today, schoolgirls wear pink blazers and schoolboys blue ones.
- 15.
Tlemçani, R. 1999. Etat, bazar et globalisation: L’aventure de l’infitah. Alger: Editions El Hikma.
- 16.
Bouatta, C. “Evolution of the women’s movement in contemporary Algeria: Organization, Objectives and Prospects.” In United Nations University Working Paper N° 124, February 1997.
- 17.
Temporary/pleasure marriages are different names for the Arabic word mut’a, which is a sexual contract between a man and woman, much in the same way the conventional marriage is. The main difference is that the temporary marriage lasts only for a specified period of time. The first one to legislate mut’a and all the rules pertaining to it was the Prophet. All schools of Islamic thought agree that the Prophet legislated mut’a and made it legal after his migration to Medina, and people practiced it during his lifetime. However, there is a disagreement between the Shi’a and Sunni as to whether the Prophet later banned it or not. Most Sunnis assert that although the Prophet legislated it, he later forbade it. This type of marriage has re-emerged recently.
- 18.
For example, the US government used the women’s rights issue in its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- 19.
Lalami, F. 2012, Les Algériennes contre le code de la famille. La lutte pour l’égalité. Paris: Les Presses de Sciences Politiques.
- 20.
The world-famous conservative Egyptian Cheikh, Mohammed Al-Qaradawi, who regularly preached on national TV in the 1980s, is widely credited for having impacted the drafting of this bill.
- 21.
- 22.
Sabbagh, A. “The Arab States: Enhancing Women’s Political Participation.” Available from: http://www.idea.int/publications/wip2/upload/Arab_World.pdf.
- 23.
Tlemçani, R. 2009. “Femmes et politique en Algérie.” In Maghreb-Machrek, L’Algérie face aux crises, N° 200, Summer 2009, pp. 21–27.
- 24.
When Louisa Hanoune, head of the Workers’ Party, a Trotskyist group, adopted radical discourse, she was very popular, particularly among women. Her popularity drastically declined when she started to promote a discourse in favor of the dominant ruling clan. She was a candidate in the 2014 presidential election, the results of which clearly disclose that her popularity has faded away.
- 25.
The President of Algeria is elected for a term of five years and this process is renewable. The present Algerian president was elected for the fourth time although he has been incapacitated since 2012.
- 26.
Massive electoral fraud, or political corruption, is not an element of dysfunction in the Algerian political system; rather, it is a structural element of it, as I have argued in most of my work.
- 27.
This bill requires variable quotas from 20 % to 50 % of the candidates for parliament to be women, depending on the number of seats in each district. The law prescribes the following quotas in relation to the magnitude of the electoral constituencies: 20 % for constituencies with 4 seats; 30 % for those with 5–14 seats; 35 % for those with 15–31 seats; 40 % for those with 32 or more seats, and 50 % for constituencies abroad.
- 28.
It is opportune to contextualize this electoral victory. The elections themselves were characterized by massive fraud, acknowledged today by officials themselves and, paradoxically, even by President Bouteflika. Consequently, Algerians are no longer interested in elections, which they perceive as not open and free. Unsurprisingly, the real rate of participation was very low, not exceeding 30 %. (Tlemçani Rachid. 2001, Algérie, Dictionnaire du Vote, Pascal Perrineau et Dominique Reynié (Editors), PUF, 2001, Paris, and Algérie: un autoritarisme électoral, Tumultes, N° 38–39, 2012).
- 29.
Flood Alison, Turkish novelists Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak accused of being Western stooges by pro-government press. Available from:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/12/pamuk-shafak-turkish-press-campaign [December 12, 2014].
- 30.
Arfaoui, K. “Radical Islam and the Weakening Status of Women,” International Forum, “The Escalation of Violence against Women the Mena Region,” May 29–31, 2015, Fez, Morocco.
- 31.
Maher A. “Tunisia’s ‘sexual jihad’-extremist fetwa or propaganda?” Available from: www.BBC.bloc/news/world-africa-24448933 [October 26, 2013].
- 32.
Islamist groups’ ultimate goal is to set up a caliphate, an Islamic state, in the Muslim world. The basic disagreement among them lies in the methods to be used for reaching this chief goal: moderate Islamists privilege peaceful means whereas radical ones privilege violence.
- 33.
Laabi, A. 2013. Un autre Maroc. Paris: La Découverte.
Bibliography
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Lalami, F. (2012). Les Algériennes contre le code de la famille. La lutte pour l’égalité. Paris: Les Presses de Sciences Politiques.
Lazreg, M. (1994). The Eloquence of Silence: Algerian women in question. New York: Routledge.
Sabbagh, A. The Arab States: Enhancing women’s political participation. Available from: http://www.idea.int/publications/wip2/upload/Arab_World.pdf.
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Tlemçani, R. (2012). Algérie: un autoritarisme électoral. In Tumultes, N° 38–39, 2012.
Tlemçani, R. (1999). Etat, bazar et globalisation: L’aventure de l’infitah. Algiers: Editions El Hikma.
Tlemçani, R. (2009). Femmes et politique en Algérie. In Maghreb-Machrek, L’Algérie face aux crises, N° 200, Eté 2009, p. 24.
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Tlemçani, R. (2016). The Algerian Woman Issue: Struggles, Islamic Violence, and Co-optation. In: Sadiqi, F. (eds) Women’s Movements in Post-“Arab Spring” North Africa. Comparative Feminist Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50675-7_16
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