Organising across borders: Algerian women's associations in a period of conflict

Abstract

In Muslim contexts of modernity, women's corporal visibility and citizenship rights constitute the political stakes around which the public sphere is defined. Women's visibility, women's mobility and women's voices are central in shaping the boundaries of the public sphere(Gole, 1997:61). This article examines the consequences for political organisation of Algeria's sustained and bloody conflict. Women's right to public action has been fundamentally challenged in this virtual civil war, and they have been at the forefront of resistance to violence, in different forms of political action and at different levels of society. Religious fundamentalism raises important questions about the nature of the politicaland how it occupies public space, and behaviour in the household (particularly that of women) has become a matter of public struggle. Resistance to or organising against fundamentalism and violence in turn enters a debate about political rights. For these reasons, Algerian women's organisations probably present the most diverse aspects of Algerian associational life. Their experience has wide relevance because it is shared by women in other situations where religious fundamentalism combines with a patriarchal system to oppress them (Helie‐Lucas, 1993).