Algeria
Algeria: Urgent Action Needed to Stop Violent 'Punishments' Against Women
The VNC Campaign endorses this action being spearheaded by SIAWI in Algeria on behalf of women under threat of violent punitive actions by private individuals and groups associated with fundamentalist forces in the country. According to SIAWI and progressive forces in Algeria, these women are being targetted for ’stealing men’s or youth’s jobs’. To earn a living, they had to live awy from their families hence without their walis (male guardians). This spate of incidents is taking place in the broader context of State inaction against systemic violence being waged by these fundamentalist forces for decades now. Please click on this
Algeria: Two more ’punitive’ actions against women have taken place in less than one month in the southern city of M’sila, Algeria (night of June 11 and July 2-3, 2011). Their houses were burnt down by hundreds of youth, and they barely escaped being lynched. The police did not intervene.
Algeria: Artwork on rape of women by fundamentalist armed groups censored at Sharjah Biennial
Because art is free to be impolite…
Even as the Arab spring unfolds across the region, I learned with profound astonishment that Mr. Jack Persekian, director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, has been dismissed as “punishment” for allowing an artist invited to the Sharjah Biennial total freedom of expression. I am the artist in question. My installation “Maportaliche/Ecritures sauvages” [It has no importance/Wild Writings] has been censored and removed from the Biennial.
Algeria: Concluding Observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (3-21 May 2010)
Highlights from the Report
8. The Committee notes with concern that, despite the amendments to the Constitution through article 31(bis) of Act No.08-19 of 15 November 2008, the Family Code and the Nationality Code, de iure and de facto inequalities continue to exist between men and women, in particular the persistence of stereotypes, attitudes and patriarchal traditions on family and societal roles of men and women. It is also concerned about discrimination against women, in particular regarding inheritance rights, a lower representation of women in decision-making and public positions, and wages that are nearly a third of those for men. (article 3)
ALGERIA: Ongoing massacres of women: Call on authorities to ensure protection of women in Hassi Messaoud!
For several WEEKS now, women have been subjected to murderous attacks in the South of Algeria; this has provoked international protests and calls for the intervention of the United Nations Special Rapporteurs. It is crucial that these initial protests are relayed and supported by a large number of organisations across the world. These events remind us of the tragic days of July 2001 which saw hundreds of women, “tortured, stoned, raped and buried alive”, as recalled by the Algerian press. Please also see .
