The Role, Experiences and Challenges of Female Politicians during and after the Algerian Hirak

It has been four years since Algerians on the 22 of February 2019 took to the streets every Friday to voice their dissatisfaction with the country’s sociopolitical situation (Cherbi 2023). They demanded the fall of the regime, including the military, and the destruction of the clientelist and bureaucratic system encompassing what the Algerians call le pouvoir (the power) (Guemar et al. 2019). Their movement, dubbed Hirak was the first protest since the war of liberation from the French involving such an active presence and participation of women from all social classes contesting and protesting the country’s status-quo and political structures (Filiu 2019, 75). This presentation explores the role and challenges of women during and post-2019, especially those of female politicians: a group of women often disregarded when talking about the Algerian protest movement. Female politicians in Algeria were highly involved in the protest, but their participation was not wanted by the protesters, which saw them as belonging to le pouvoir. Female politicians remained active in the protest and together with Algerian women reappropriated the Algerian public sphere by participating in the Hirak on Fridays and attending sit-ins in the evenings after Salat Al-Maghrib, two religious and male-dominated spheres and times. At the same time, female politicians experienced physical, psychological, sexual, economic, and semiotic violence by different parts of the Algerian society including male and female protesters (Krook 2020). After the protest, many politicians were forced to leave politics by the regime because of their affiliation with the protest while others left due to trauma and continued violence. Following the protest gender quotas were abolished and Algeria currently has the lowest percentage of formal female political participation since 2012. This work is based on 30 semi-structured interviews with local and national female politicians that participated in the protest. These women belong to different legislative sessions post-2012 and come from four historically distinct regions in Algeria i.e., Algiers, Annaba, Oran, and Tizi Ouzou. This presentation answers the following questions: What was female politicians’ role and why did they participate in the protest? How did their participation in the protest shape their political careers? What experiences, demands and challenges did the women have during and after the end of the protest? This presentation argues that female political participation and careers are shaped by their participation, endurance, and experiences during the Hirak.