From repudiation to femicide

Malika Boussouf, journalist and writer.

These are not the only forms of violence suffered by Algerian women; religion is even involved in some of them. Both are reinforced by attitudes, such as: “Beat your wife. If you don’t know why you do it, she does”, She is the maid in perpetual expectation of correction and from beatings she moves on to murder. Most women victims of violence do not suspect that beatings or psychological violence can lead to femicide. Doubts, fear, regrets of the spouse or others slow down the filing of a complaint and encourage the final action. Which puts an end to life.

Every society has its own way of dealing with this kind of violence. Many will call it an act of love and many will associate it with Sharia law. In Algeria, the associative community warns about the increase in femicides. At least one woman a week is killed and in most cases at the hands of someone very close to her. The figures that we know are underestimated due to the lack of coordination between the services that manage this type of violence. Several associations are calling for a revision of the law, which is still too favorable to the attackers. They call for the criminalization of femicide. If the Constitution declares to protect women against all forms of violence, the pardon clause included in the common penal code.

“Before ending up in the cemetery, I want to help change things”, declared a young high school student who did not want to be identified while participating in a meeting. A workshop, organized by the association Djazairouna (“Our Algeria”), aimed to draw up a charter of rights for victims of sexual violence not yet criminalized in Algeria. Showing her bruised leg, she recounted how her brother beat her, justifying the sexual harassment she suffered from her teacher because of her dress, which he considered “provocative”. Since then, the young woman, who took refuge at a friend’s house in Algiers to escape the beatings, has campaigned for a prison sentence to sanction the non-reporting of sexual violence by those around her. In her case, neither her school nor her mother helped her, she said. The drama experienced by this high school student highlights the powerlessness of women in the face of their tormentors.

Since the beginning of 2023, the independent monitoring unit “Feminicides Algeria” has recorded 33 femicides. The total over the last four years is 261 murders. An underestimated figure according to the founders of this site who, in the absence of an official census system, try to collect the elements that testify to this terrible reality on social networks and in the rare facts reported in the media. A commitment that helps to give a face, a name and a story to the victims. So that they do not become a news item quickly forgotten and their death gives food for thought.

The author Malika Boussouf participating in a demonstration

Between honor crimes and legal protection
If jurists whose mission is to work to make budding criminals reflect on what awaits them should they be tempted to act, do so without conviction, it is also because public opinion does not exert pressure on the system. Honor crimes and those who commit them are associated with the social code of conduct. It all depends on male power and what it imposes or tolerates on the sub-citizen who remains the Algerian woman. The media bear much of the responsibility for the deafening silence of the public authorities. When we report on a femicide we do not explain why it came to this point. The press, even if it does not admit it, ignores the influence it can have on these women who do not have the courage to defend themselves to escape a tragic end. The pardon clause prevents the prosecutor from prosecuting the guilty party. Prosecution ceases abruptly if the victim forgives her torturer. The culprit is released and can do it again, convinced that once again he will get away with it. According to figures reported by the Directorate General of National Security (DGSN), at least one woman a week is reported to have been beaten to death or to have been the victim of an attempted murder by her spouse.

However, it is important to note that the number of cases of violence against women is much higher than the reported figures, for several reasons:
1) The reluctance of women to contact the police or gendarmerie services, especially if the aggressor is a family member.
2) The trivialization of violence against women by the victims themselves and by society in general.
3) The institutionalized pardon clause that deters many women from filing a complaint.
4) Random registration of complaints.
5) Lack of centralization of cases, between complaints filed with the national gendarmerie and assistance requested directly from the Directorates of Social Action and Solidarity (DASS).
6) Difficulty in isolating a number. The number of cases of violence against women reported during the days on violence against women comes from the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN). The gendarmerie figures are not published every year and, when they are, they are published separately from the DGSN. In total, 228 femicides of all types were recorded between 2019 and 2022, which represents an average of four to five murders per month.