Progress Amid Resistance

40 WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICAto implement it, some judges still require that a bride’s father act as walior permit marriages by proxy. Article 7 bis, which requires prospectivespouses to present health certificates to prevent the spread of disease, hasbeen interpreted by some officials as an obligation for women to presenta virginity certificate. And although the new code prevents imams fromconducting religious marriage ceremonies unless the spouses submit a civilcontract first, some couples try to avoid this requirement. When such marriagesend in divorce, women lack the protections of a marital contract.Article 34 of the constitution prohibits all violations of human dignity,while Articles 342 and 343 of the penal code criminalize most forms of sextrafficking and exploitation of minors. Little data exists on the extent ofdomestic slavery and human trafficking in Algeria. From the government’sperspective, the issue of human trafficking is secondary to the more pressingquestion of illegal immigration from sub-Saharan Africa. According toa report published in 2007 by the U.S. State Department, of the 15,000illegal sub-Saharan African immigrants residing in Algeria, about 9,000were victims of trafficking, sexual exploitation, or involuntary forms ofservitude. 21 The report also found that the government did not adequatelydistinguish between human trafficking and illegal immigration, though itis possible that this will change under a new antitrafficking law approvedin January 2009.The government must protect all persons under Article 24 of the constitution,and security has significantly improved in the past 10 years. None -theless, women remain vulnerable to different forms of violence. Domesticabuse is not specifically prohibited by law, and because society considersit a private matter, it remains difficult to combat. As one women’s rightsactivist put it, within the private sphere of the home, “women escape theprotection of the law and men escape the sentence of the law.” 22 A nationalsurvey commissioned in 2006 by the Ministry in Charge of the Familyand Women’s Affairs found that some 10 percent of the female respondentswere exposed “daily” or “often” to physical abuse, while 31.4 percentwere regularly exposed to threats of violence. 23 However, these figuresare generally considered to be much lower than the actual incidences ofdomestic violence and threats. Women tend to avoid reporting abuse orgoing to court for fear that they will incur further violence or face hostilejudges. According to one lawyer, a specialist in domestic violence, victims“are attacked twice, one time by their husband and another time by thejudge.” 24