Gender, civil society and citizenship in Algeria

Middle East Report

Volumn , Issue 198, 1996, Pages 22-26

  Cheriet, Boutheina ^a,b  

^a Benyoucef Benkhedda

^b BROOKINGS INSTITUTION   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GENDER INEQUALITY; PATRIARCHY; SOCIAL POLICY;

ALGERIA;

EID: 0029913996     PISSN: 08992851     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3012871     Document Type: Article

References (14)

1. I propose here a maverick use of anthropological observation, whereby the observer is thoroughly embedded in the processes as actor. I enjoyed seemingly ideal conditions of liberation, individualization and professionalism, guaranteed by my status as a public employee, a university professor. My marriage into an influential family of Tebessa, a small town (approximately 700 km southeast of Algiers) with residual tribal configurations, returned me to statuses, roles and behavior expressive more of kin constraints and allegiances than of a free and autonomous individual directly relating to state institutions and structures. My status as wife led me to play along two contrary registers: appear as a professional, efface as a wife.
2. See Hisham Sharabi, Neo-Patriarchy, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).
3. See Boutheina Cheriet, "Feminism and Fundamentalism: Algeria's Rites of Passage to Democracy," in J. P. Entelis and P. C. Naylor, eds., State and Society in Algeria, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992), pp. 171-215.
4. See Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society, (London: Al Saqi Books, 1985).
5. The official reference for personal status in Algeria is al-Qanun al-Usrah (the Family Code). The documents cited here include "Law no. 84-11," The Official Journal of the Algerian Democratic and Popular Republic, (Algiers, June 9, 1984); Parliamentary Debates no. 126, 1982; nos. 46, 47, 48, 52, 1984, The Official Journal of the National Popular Assembly (JOAPN), (Algiers). These latter represent the minutes of the 1982 and 1984 debates on the family code. All documents are in French. Translations by the author.
6. The official reference for personal status in Algeria is al-Qanun al-Usrah (the Family Code). The documents cited here include "Law no. 84-11," The Official Journal of the Algerian Democratic and Popular Republic, (Algiers, June 9, 1984); Parliamentary Debates no. 126, 1982; nos. 46, 47, 48, 52, 1984, The Official Journal of the National Popular Assembly (JOAPN), (Algiers). These latter represent the minutes of the 1982 and 1984 debates on the family code. All documents are in French. Translations by the author.
7. Between 1980 and 1983, various movements of civil disobedience characterized the Algerian political scene for the first time since independence in 1962. Three types of contestation manifested themselves almost simultaneously: the ethnic Berber demands for official recognition of the Berber Amazigh language and culture; the Islamists' demands for the total Islamisation of Algeria and feminist demands for full implementation of women's constitutional citizenship rights, threatened by the then Personal Status legislation. This diverse opposition to state monolithism heralded the October 1988 riots marking the delegitimation of the one-party system.
8. For an insightful account of Qur'anic verses pertaining to the religious, social and legal position of women, see Abdel Hamid al-Shawaribi, Al-Huquq al-Siyassia lil-Mar'a fil-Islem [Women's Political Rights in Islam], (Alexandria; Mansha'at al-Ma'arif, 1987).
9. JOAPN 126, p. 3. One might mistake this remark for a Weberian observation on secularism and the transformation of social relations.
10. Ibid., pp. 10-11.
11. See Boutheina Cheriet, "Specific Socialism and Illiteracy amongst Women: A Comparative Study of Algeria and Tanzania," (PhD dissertation, University of London Institute of Education, 1987), p. 195.
12. The plenary sessions of 23-24 April, 1984 (JOAPN, nos. 46, 47 and 52).
13. JOAPN 46, pp. 19-21.
14. Abdel'aziz Sa'ad, "Nidham Ta'adud al-Zaujat fi-Qawa'id al-Shari'a wal-Qawaneen alWadh'iyya" [Polygamy in the Rules of the Shari'a and Positive Laws], al-Thaqafa [Ministry of Culture Review] 95, September-October 1986, pp. 197-211. Translation by the author.