We told each other everything. On 6 April 1993, Hassina was making preparations for Karima's wedding when she heard shots. Her eyes were open and there was a big hole between her eyes, and blood flowing out of her head. A Koran lies under the TV set in her family's home, and a picture of Mecca hangs on the wall above the sofa. They started attacking women because they're a symbol.
Women are the backbone of the family.
The seeds of Islamist oppression of women were sown by Algeria's post-independence rulers. Women fought alongside men in the 1954-1962 war of liberation against France. Algeria's 1984 Family Code is considered one of the most backward in the Arab world, for it makes women lifelong wards of their fathers, brothers and husbands. No society that entrusts its affairs to a woman will ever know prosperity,' is a common adage in Algeria. When Sheikh Ali Belhadj, an imprisoned Islamic leader, said he would abolish unemployment by forcing women to stay at home, he was applauded.