Progress Amid Resistance

54 WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICAassert their rights more freely, as many currently remain silent for fearof being forced to live on the streets.F The government should provide single mothers with adequate housingsubsidies and assistance in accessing health care.AUTHORNadia Marzouki is a political scientist who works on religious pluralismin Europe and North Africa. She holds a PhD from Institut d’EtudesPolitiques de Paris and is currently a postdoctoral associate and lecturer atthe Council on Middle East Studies at Yale University. She conducted thefieldwork for this report during the summer of 2009.NOTES1However, very lively and noisy debates took place within the National People’s Assemblyin 1982 and 1984 between opposing political factions. See Boutheina Cheriet, “Islamismand Feminism: Algeria’s Rites of Passage to Democracy,” in State and Society inAlgeria, ed. John P. Entelis and Phillip C. Naylor (Boulder: Westview Press, 1992),171–216.2Mounira M. Charrad, State and Women’s Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia,Algeria and Morocco (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 199.3Craig S. Smith, “Quake Demolishes Confidence in Algerian Rulers,” New York Times,May 30, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/30/world/quake-demolishes-confidence-in-algerian-rulers.html.4Order No. 75-58 of September 26, 1975, of the Civil Code (Ministry of Justice),Article 1: “La loi régit toutes les matières auxquelles se rapporte la lettre ou l’esprit del’une de ses dispositions. En l’absence d’une disposition légale, le juge se prononce selonles principes du droit musulmane et, à défaut, selon la coutume. Le cas échéant, il arecours au droit naturel et aux règles de l’équité.”5A copy of the nationality code, in French and Arabic, is available at http://www.droit.mjustice.dz/code_nation_alger.pdf.6Viol is based on the same root as the English word violence.7Amnesty International, “Algeria,” in Amnesty International Report 2009 (London:Amnesty International, 2009), http://report2009.amnesty.org/en/regions/middle-eastnorth-africa/algeria.8A copy of the code is available at http://www.droit.mjustice.dz/SOFF.htm.9International Centre for Prison Studies, “World Prison Brief,” King’s College (London),http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/law/research/icps/worldbrief/wpb_country.php?country=1 (accessed September 16, 2009).10See Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General, Status of Treaties,Chapter IV, CEDAW, Endnote 2, http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4&lang=en#2 (accessed September 16, 2009).