/ 24 September 2004

Algeria’s streets of shame

Algeria has a growing number of women forced to live on the streets, often with small children to support. In the capital, Algiers, runaways, divorcees and women kicked out of their homes by their families rummage through garbage for food and cardboard for shelter.

”The dark point in Algerian legislation is the ‘family code’,” explains Salima Tlemcani, senior journalist with the independent Algerian newspaper, El Watan.

”This law was established in 1984 and is entirely against women. It considers us half citizens and is devoted to making men indispensable in our lives.”

She cites its tenets on marriage as an example. A woman needs the testimony of a man to get married. She cannot ask for a divorce unless she can prove her husband is crazy, he’s disappeared for more than five years or has been in prison for at least 20.

”In our society it is impossible for a divorced woman to return to her father’s house with no job and many, many children,” Tlemcani says.

Fatma Zora Benmohammed is 51 years old and has been living on the streets for 19 years. Her sole possessions in the world are two lice-infested blankets that she now clasps tightly around her as the chilling night air gushes forward from the nearby sea.

Her problems started after her husband went to jail for raping their daughter. ”He got seven years in the prison,” she remembers, staring into the darkness.

”When he came out he wanted revenge. I didn’t know he was released from the jail. He climbed into the house from the window and tried to kill me with an electrical rope. I said ‘don’t do anything against me, this is your house, your children, I will leave’.”

Almost 75% of marriages are arranged and about 60% end in divorce. Under Algerian law, when a couple divorces, the man keeps the house.

”It’s very dangerous living on the street,” whispers Hadadoor Nabila, her eyes staring at the pavement in embarrassment. Her three-year-old twins play at her feet while her one-year-old daughter suckles at her nipple. ”You get drunk, crazy people on the streets. They come up to you and want to kill you. Some try to rape me.”

The tears trickle down her flushed skin. Defeated eyes belie a pretty 25-year-old who’s never been to school and has never had a job.

”I am on the street because of my husband. His mother came and asked for my hand. I was married four years and then she kicked me out. He knows that I am living on the street for one year now but he drinks a lot and is now living with another wife. I am very angry. Even the money he should pay me, the judge ordered him, he does not pay. We are living outside, no house, nothing. It gets very cold. I put carton boxes on my babies to keep them warm. My dream is to build a small box where we can live.”

Official figures put unemployment in Algeria at 30%; unofficial estimates suggest it is closer to 55%.

One of the welfare organisations trying to assist the women is Maime de Femme, which gives hairdressing, sewing and baking lessons. It hopes that by teaching skills, the women, most of whom are illiterate, will have some means of support.

”One of the main causes of divorce in Algeria is that houses are very small,” says director Nassima Setti.

”After getting married couples live with the boy’s parents. The mother-in-law wants to control the daughter-in-law and keep her as a slave … We don’t have love stories here. If a boy and girl are in love, the parents will refuse the marriage because the boy’s mother wants to control everything.”