North Africa

Dossier 28: Secular women's activism in contemporary Egypt

WSF: Women’s struggle against Muslim fundamentalism in Algeria: Strategies or a lesson for survival?

Please note the following correction for this article: Tahar Djaout, assasinated in 1993, was a male journalist.

WSF: Secular women’s activism in contemporary Egypt

The Harvest: Two Years After Khol - An Analytical Study

Egyptian women's experience of new khol provisions, as discussed in this book, act not only as a future warning for those seeking to expand women's access to divorce in other Muslim contexts. It also confirms what legal rights activists in Pakistan have known for many years since case law firmly established khol as a right available to the wife without the husband's permission in 1967.

Algérie: Obligation de tests de virginité comme condition nécessaire au mariage civil

Nous avons reçu un appel urgent de l'association "20 ans barakat" - Ile de France, attirant notre attention sur des abus d'autorité contre les femmes, de la part d'officiers d'état civil algériens.

UPDATE - Algeria: Justice given to women in Hassi Messaoud

We have received news that on 3 January 2005, thanks to a large national and international mobilization of women's organisations, justice was done.

Algeria: Justice for women in Hassi Messaoud

We have received a request for IMMEDIATE pressure to be applied on the Algerian Government to ensure justice in a case that comes up for hearing on 28 December 2004. The trial is to take place in Biskra.

Algérie: Justice pour les femmes de Hassi Messaoud

Nous venons de reçevoir une requète pour une action IMMEDIATE, pour faire pression sur le gouvernement algérien de façon à ce que justice soit rendue dans un procès qui doit avoir lieu le 28 Décembre 2004. Le procès aura lieu à Biskra.

One Hundred Steps: Codification of Family and Personal Status Laws in the Maghreb

Outlines proposed egalitarian family and personal status laws in the Maghreb and presents a synthesis of thematic reports jointly produced by a number of researchers from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

Dossier 25: Algeria: Morality Militias are Back

Who remembers the “cleansing campaign” under President Chadli, more precisely in 1982? When you went out for a walk with your girlfriend/boyfriend, you could not walk 2 steps without running into ‘gendarmes’ or policemen who demanded your marriage certificate, or if you could not produce it, would take down your identity. It [seems to have] started all over again just like in 1982, couples in search of some green in Tipasa (a small town on the West coast of Algiers) have been taken to the police station by gendarmes or municipal guards – What’s the crime? Walking hand in hand.