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In her home country, Halima Addou isn’t allowed to speak out at all, much less speak out about her beliefs on government and religion. She must have felt a long way from home last week.
“In Algeria, you can be killed just for saying you don’t care for religion,” Addou said at the Women’s City Club National Forum Series April 9 at Christ Church Cathedral. The Muslim woman left her country in 1995 to come to the United States.
Algeria, on the northern edge of Africa, has been at war with itself since its first democratic election a decade ago. The government stopped the election to prevent the party in the lead, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), from taking control of the country. The FIS is an Islamic group advocating a religion-based government.
“When religion takes over politics, it’s an explosive ingredient,” Addou said.
The social climate in Algeria over the last decade has been explosive because of a combination of factors. Addou noted that 75 percent of Algeria’s population is under age 35 and the unemployment rate is estimated to be in the 30 percent range.
Prior to the country’s first democratic election, many of these young and unemployed Islamic men spent their days in the mosques, one of the few places where they were allowed to gather. The FIS took advantage of this by campaigning in mosques and telling the young men many things, including that working women steal jobs from men.
“Instead of praying, they were talking about politics and brainwashing young people seeking guidance,” Addou said, adding that she believes that’s why the FIS was in the lead for the election. “(The FIS) wanted to impose on us a twisted interpretation of the religion.”
She noted that Islam isn’t very different from Judaism and Christianity in that none of the religions have anything to do with totalitarianism.
The FIS advocates restrictions on women’s rights, including no working, no driving and no traveling without a male relative. In Algeria, Addou defied these laws as a lawyer and as a television personality. On her program she spoke out about human rights and women’s rights in particular. She strongly advocated that Algerian women continue on with their public lives in the face of vanishing freedoms.
“In Algeria, women have no rights, no freedom and no liberties,” Addou said, noting that the country’s Family Code classifies women as minors for life under the legal guardianship of their father or husband.
Many Algerian women don’t obey the law.
“Woman go out,” she said. “They travel. They do not always obey their husbands. Women in Algeria have been the main barrier to the victory by the terrorists.”
Algerian women have a history as warriors. She said many fought in Algeria’s war of independence from France in 1962.
But women who don’t obey the prevailing laws are risking their lives. Random bombings terrorize the citizens, and specific individuals are targeted through death threats. Addou felt threatened in both ways because of her gender, her work as a human rights lawyer and her television talk show, on which she spoke out against the violence.
As a lawyer, Addou was also in the difficult situation of being appointed public defender for terrorists, making her a government target as well.
“I kept going on about my business, with the difference that I could get killed at any minute by getting my throat slit or by bombing,” Addou said.
She left the country when the threats on her life escalated.
Algeria currently has an elected a president, but the government continues to war with extremist factions, including FIS. Daily life is disrupted by terrorist attacks from several groups, and citizens live in fear.
For Addou, the outcome of the Algerian civil war is of great importance — not only for the future of the Algerian people but also in determining things to come in Africa and the Middle East.
Now a lawyer in Michigan, Addou continues her human rights campaign for Algerian women. She believes government should reflect the population, not subject the population to the rules of one religion.
She supports democracy as a step in the right direction for Algeria, but not as a final step. She said Algerian woman suffer from both state-sponsored and traditional discrimination.
“Women in democracy still face discrimination and rape and domestic violence,” Addou said, adding that women living in democracies still must take advantage of the opportunity to speak up for their rights.
Addou believes America is a good country not because of its government but because of its people. Even here, the government is not yet a reflection of gender in America.
“We must get actively involved in politics,” she urged the crowd. “You’re the only one who can know what you need.” ©
This article appears in Apr 17-23, 2002.