A close account of Algerian women's’ struggle for egalitarian laws governing the family. Read More
Promulgated in 1984, the 'Code de la famille' legalizes a different status between men and women, placing the latter in a position of subordination. Hence, it contradicts the promises of equality between the sexes defended during the fight for independence and proclaimed in the Constitution.
In spite of the obstacles and constraints of the political environment – the weight of the colonial period which reduced the status of women to a stake in national identity, the limits imposed on public freedom by an authoritarian regime, a series of violent events in the 1990s – associations have always succeeded, with pragmatism, in finding new resources, especially at an international level.
The author recalls the various stages of construction of those women’s organizations: the elaboration of their demands, their insertion into a political environment where they are obliged to define their identity, invent a method for their struggle, choose their allies and adversaries and the means of being heard in the political arena.
Both an enlightening and unique view of the history of women in Algeria and a reflection on a feminist movement in an Arab country, this book lets us understand the specificities of their situation and relive, fifty years after Independence, the various stages of democratic construction in Algeria.
Feriel Lalami is a political scientist and doctor of sociology.
LISTE DES SIGLES
GLOSSAIRE
INTRODUCTION
I - L'ORGANISATION AUTONOME DES FEMMES POUR L'ÉGALITÉ
Chapitre 1 / GENÈSE DU MOUVEMENT DES FEMMES
Le code de la famille : objet des luttes
Les prémices du militantisme associatif
Chapitre 2 / UN MOUVEMENT RADICAL ET PRAGMATIQUE
Organisation, revendications, méthodes et alliances
Les militantes
II - L'INSTITUTIONNALISATION DU MOUVEMENT DES FEMMES
Chapitre 1 / RECOMPOSITIONS POLITIQUES
Du combat contre les violences islamistes...
... au recentrage sur les revendications d'origine
Chapitre 2 / ENTRE INSTITUTIONNALISATION ET CONTRE-POUVOIR
Des associations devenues des ONG
Réactions à la révision et à l'application du code de la famille
CONCLUSION
ANNEXES
BIBLIOGRAPHIE
TABLE DES DOCUMENTS