Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:44:37.086Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Ambiguous State: Gender and Citizenship as Barter in Algeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Boutheina Cheriet*
Affiliation:
University of Algiers

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This essay proposes a re-reading of the process of establishing the post-colonial nation-state in Algeria, and of the dynamics of citizenship in the light of gender, in order to illuminate the hesitations of the political class as to the meaning of the principle of universal emancipation and sexual equality in the private sphere of personal status.

Whereas up to now readings studying the nature of the Algerian political regime and its ideological discourse have been solely concerned with denouncing the “moribund” character of modernism and/or “Algerian-style” socialism, the argument will deal mainly with the private domestic sphere in order to expose ideological references and representations that are decidedly traditionalist, if not archaic, as regards gender relations in the Algerian family, idealized by the legislation underlying the Family Code (1984/2005).

Finally a detailed review, based on an analysis by gender, of the minutes of parliamentary debates in the legislatures from 1982 to 1984 will demonstrate the highly patriarchal nature of the cultural representations of Algeria's decision-makers, who are reluctant to extend “modernization” to the female population.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2010

References

(al-Shawaribi, ‘Abdel Hamid) (1987) : Alexandria Google Scholar
Cheriet, Boutheina (1992) ‘Feminism and Fund amentalism: Algeria’s Rites of Passage to Democracy,’ in Entelis, J. P. and Naylor, P. C., State and Society in Algeria, p. 171215. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen (1970) Towards a Rational Society. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Harbi, Mohamed (1975) Aux origines du fln: le populisme révolutionnaire en Algérie. Paris: Ch. Bourgois.Google Scholar
Mameri, Khelifa (1975) Citations du Président Boumédiène. Alger: SNED.Google Scholar
Mernissi, Fatima (1985) Beyond the Veil: MaleFemale Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society. London: Al- Saqi Books.Google Scholar
Raffinot, M. and Jacquemot, P. (1977) Le capitalisme d’État algérien. Paris: Maspero.Google Scholar
Sharabi, Hisham (1988) Neo-Patriarchy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar