VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY ALGERIA:
A GEOPOLITICAL ANALYSIS
Open Access
Author:
Behar, Robyn Jael
Area of Honors:
Geography
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Lorraine Dowler, Thesis Supervisor Roger Michael Downs, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Algeria Violence Law Legislation Women Gender Abuse Rule of Law VAW RoL Maghreb Islam Feminist Government Culture
Abstract:
Question: How do political structures within the current Algerian government make it difficult to report and resolve incidences of violence against women (VAW)?
My thesis is a contemporary study that investigates how political structures within the current Algerian government make it difficult to report and resolve incidences of violence against women (VAW). I first address the ways in which the Algerian government handles VAW. I examine its legislative constructions to reveal a consistent failure to support women’s equal access to justice. I then nuance experiences of VAW through an analysis of how women interact with the legal system, as well as when informal pressures dissuade them to do so. I expand on these experiences to uncover the state of rule of law (RoL) for Algerian women, and address the progress of the past thirty years. Using English and French legal and literary documents, sources of modern news, and scholarly articles, I analyze where the breakdown of RoL occurs in order to identify at which scale the Algerian regime does not uphold women’s rights.
