Word: algerianness
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...paying a high price for their independence. Consider events in the refugee centers of Peshawar, Pakistan, where more than a dozen Afghan women have been "disappeared" by radical Islamic groups for the crime of working in women's centers or with foreign aid organizations; or an episode in the Algerian town of Mascara, where a Muslim nurse was doused with alcohol and set on fire by her brother, who was furious with her for treating male patients...
Pressures to curtail the rights of women come from various puritanical sects within Islam. "They want to impose a new social order by force," says Khalida Messaoudi, president of an Algerian women's organization. "They start by attacking women because women are the weakest link in these societies." Particularly strict is the Wahhabiyah, a movement founded in the 18th century that counts among its adherents many Afghans and the Saudi ruling family. Wahhabi women live behind the veil, are forbidden to drive, and may travel only if accompanied by a husband or a male blood relative. The demands...
Some Muslim women argue that the zealots are perverting the very religion they claim to hold so dear. "This terrifying image of unhappy women covered in veils is not Islam," says Leila Aslaoui, an Algerian magistrate. Certainly, Muhammad was a liberal man for his time. He helped out around his various households, mended his own clothes and believed sexual satisfaction was a woman's right. The religion he founded outlawed female infanticide, made the education of girls a sacred duty and established a woman's right to own and inherit property...
After a decade in exile, former Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella made a rousing return last week, calling on the government to resign and urging citizens to support Iraq's Saddam Hussein. "Telephone the Iraqis, send telegrams and tell them you are with them," he said in an hour-long speech in Algiers. "Go by the hundreds of thousands to the Iraqi embassy, and don't leave until they sign you up as volunteers...
...Many Algerian voters were not endorsing radical fundamentalism when they voted for the Islamic Salvation Front. Rather, they found common cause with the front's president, Abbassi Madani, who called the ruling F.L.N. a "party of failure." Promised Madani: "We guarantee the freedom of all who have ideas on Algeria's future." While such words are encouraging, Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini promoted a similar message before he returned to Iran in 1979 from exile in France...