Thirty women have been murdered in Algeria in the last few months for not wearing the veil. Other women have been raped or abducted. These crimes followed the circulation of a leaflet by Islamic fundamentalists stating that any woman not wearing "Islamic dress" would be sentenced to death. Here, Sanadja, a member of the Socialist Workers Party, explains the war against women.
Women were very active in the 1954-62 war of national liberation to drive out the French. After the 1962 victory many of them returned to their homes, encouraged by the governing National Liberation Front (FLN). Women had no leading positions in the state apparatus.
The FLN created a "mass organisation" for women which did nothing to raise their political awareness.
Worse still, at the end of the 1970s they tried to introduce the Family Code which reinforced the traditional subjugation of women within the family. After a wave of opposition demonstrations, the code was withdrawn temporarily, but reintroduced in 1984.
The Family Code allows polygamy, women do not have the right to demand divorce, they have no legal right to their own home. There are a hundred and one things which mean women have no place in our society.
Women in Algeria make up a little more than 4% of the work force. This is the lowest level in the Mahgreb.
The climate of fear is such that many women are forced to wear the veil, give up their jobs and stay in their homes. The FLN government has done nothing for women, and the terrible situation we are now in is because of them. On every level — democracy, education, the economy — they have failed.
In the early 1980s the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) criticised mixed schools and women wearing jeans or trousers. All the sermons in the mosques were directed against women.
When FIS won a majority in the 1989 municipal elections, in certain areas they imposed segregation on the buses between men and women. They attacked women who lived alone, arguing that women should either be married or living in their father's family. They even burned to death a woman living alone.
The FIS openly attacked the young women's university campus during Ramadan. The response of the FLN government was to close down the university.
After the elections of December 1991 — the government stopped the second round which should have been held in January 1992 — a wave of repression was launched against the fundamentalists. Several hundred were put into concentration camps and held in deplorable conditions.
If the fundamentalists came to power, the first to suffer would be women. Even those who live the most "normal" life would suffer.
Many women have decided to wear the veil and support the fundamentalists. But there are also a lot of women with grave reservations, including devout Muslims.
Most women are Muslims, but that doesn't mean they want laws which restrict them because of their sex. That is why there was a demonstration in Algiers on March 20 of 100,000 women in defence of their rights. Among those who demonstrated were women wearing the veil and women wearing jeans.
Unfortunately, the opposition are very divided on how to respond to the war against women.
Many believe that the violence is not solely the responsibility of the fundamentalists; some acts are committed by the ruling party which needs the present instability to preserve its power.
On the question of elections the left is also divided. A section, particularly the former Stalinist party, are in favour of the army taking power.
I would like to remind those women that when we fought in 1988-89, when we fought against the Family Code, it was against this government, not the fundamentalists. We cannot possibly call for support for this government.
[Abridged from Socialist Outlook (Britain).]