LOCAL LAWS AND CUSTOMS : The normal work week in Algeria is Saturday to Wednesday.
Uh, hello?! Someone neglected to mention that.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The Arab World's Exception
Women Are on the Rise in Algeria
By Amira El Ahl
Der Spiegel Online
In Algeria, women drive trains, hold positions as judges and make up the majority of students. Nowhere else in the Arab world are equal rights for women taken so seriously.
In the early morning, the modest gas station on the Boulevard Bougara in central Algiers is already bustling. Attendants fill cars with gas, wash and inspect them. In one corner oil levels are topped up, in another a large vacuum cleaner sucks up dust from upholstery.
Moudjed Naima, 32, wears tatty olive-green overalls, green rubber boots and a cap. The small, energetic woman is cleaning a white pickup truck inside and out. She has been employed here for a year, working every day from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., except Fridays. She got her diploma in photography and computer science, but it was little help -- she was unemployed until she asked for work at the gas station. "I knew there was a woman in charge," she says, "and I started right away."
Naima is married with two children. Like her husband, she earns around 100,000 dinar -- a good €1,000 ($1470) -- monthly, but she also receives tips. "I bring in more money that he does," she says, laughing. Every morning she gives him 200 dinar "for cigarettes and lunch." In some ways, Algeria is reversing traditional gender stereotypes in the Arab world.
Since the end of the deadly civil war between radical Islamists and the government at the start of the new millennium, Algeria has been in a state of flux. There are more girls enrolled in high schools than boys, and almost 61 percent of university graduates are women. "Education is many women’s only window on the outside world," explains journalist Zeinab Ben Zita. The more educated a woman is, the greater her likelihood of independence
Click here to read more
By Amira El Ahl
Der Spiegel Online
In Algeria, women drive trains, hold positions as judges and make up the majority of students. Nowhere else in the Arab world are equal rights for women taken so seriously.
In the early morning, the modest gas station on the Boulevard Bougara in central Algiers is already bustling. Attendants fill cars with gas, wash and inspect them. In one corner oil levels are topped up, in another a large vacuum cleaner sucks up dust from upholstery.
Moudjed Naima, 32, wears tatty olive-green overalls, green rubber boots and a cap. The small, energetic woman is cleaning a white pickup truck inside and out. She has been employed here for a year, working every day from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., except Fridays. She got her diploma in photography and computer science, but it was little help -- she was unemployed until she asked for work at the gas station. "I knew there was a woman in charge," she says, "and I started right away."
Naima is married with two children. Like her husband, she earns around 100,000 dinar -- a good €1,000 ($1470) -- monthly, but she also receives tips. "I bring in more money that he does," she says, laughing. Every morning she gives him 200 dinar "for cigarettes and lunch." In some ways, Algeria is reversing traditional gender stereotypes in the Arab world.
Since the end of the deadly civil war between radical Islamists and the government at the start of the new millennium, Algeria has been in a state of flux. There are more girls enrolled in high schools than boys, and almost 61 percent of university graduates are women. "Education is many women’s only window on the outside world," explains journalist Zeinab Ben Zita. The more educated a woman is, the greater her likelihood of independence
Click here to read more
Algeria's quiet revolution: Gains by women
By Michael Slackman
International Herald Tribune
Published: May 26, 2007
ALGIERS: In this tradition-bound nation scarred by a brutal Islamist-led civil war that killed more than 100,000, a quiet revolution is under way: women are emerging as an economic and political force unheard of in the rest of the Arab world.
Women make up 70 percent of Algeria's lawyers and 60 percent of its judges. Women dominate medicine. Increasingly, women contribute more to household income than men. Sixty percent of university students are women, university researchers say.
In a region where women have a decidedly low public profile, Algerian women are visible everywhere. They are starting to drive buses and taxicabs. They pump gas and wait on tables.
Although men still hold all of the formal levers of power and women still make up only 20 percent of the work force, that is more than twice their share a generation ago, and they seem to be taking over the machinery of state as well.
Click here to read more
International Herald Tribune
Published: May 26, 2007
ALGIERS: In this tradition-bound nation scarred by a brutal Islamist-led civil war that killed more than 100,000, a quiet revolution is under way: women are emerging as an economic and political force unheard of in the rest of the Arab world.
Women make up 70 percent of Algeria's lawyers and 60 percent of its judges. Women dominate medicine. Increasingly, women contribute more to household income than men. Sixty percent of university students are women, university researchers say.
In a region where women have a decidedly low public profile, Algerian women are visible everywhere. They are starting to drive buses and taxicabs. They pump gas and wait on tables.
Although men still hold all of the formal levers of power and women still make up only 20 percent of the work force, that is more than twice their share a generation ago, and they seem to be taking over the machinery of state as well.
Click here to read more
Monday, May 12, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The Jewish Community of Oran, Algeria
The Great Synagogue of Oran, left.
At the time of the French entrance to Oran in 1831 the great majority of the city population was Jewish. According to a census conducted by the French there were about 2,800 Jews in Oran, well ahead of the local Christians and Muslims who together amounted to about 1,000 inhabitants...By the mid 19th century there were about 5,000 Jews in Oran...The years that followed WW2 saw the breakout of the Algerian struggle for independence....The city's Jewish community of almost thirty thousand people continued its regular life, but in February 1956 rioters attacked Jewish property...
Click to read full text.
European Cultural Festival
The 8th European Cultural Festival will open in Algiers on Europe Day, Wednesday, April 9th, and will run through May 31st, EU Ambassador to Algeria Wolfgang Plasa said at a press conference on Sunday. The programme will include some 17 musical and dance spectacles and many exhibitions. According to Plasa the festival organised by the European Commission delegation in Algeria will be "a true feast", including performances by "a hundred artists representing the EU member countries' cultural variety and diversity". Algiers, Boumerdes, Oran, Tlemcen and Setif will host the festival's events.
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