Description
This paper is situated in a wider discussion around the role of women in political and social change and environmental awareness and activism. Since 2018, several social mobilisation movements have taken places in MENA countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, Sudan and Algeria. In the Algerian context, this movement became known as the Hirak. Women were strongly present in these movements as they participated effectively in organising and communicating the demands of protesters. Women’s participation in these widely popular movements is a great testimony challenging the stereotypical ‘victim, oppressed, having little agency’ representation of women in the Muslim and Arab world. Women participated in the Hirak by taking part in the protests and volunteering to organise them. They also did so by taking back the public space, from providing meals outdoors and cleaning up the local environments after demonstrations, to reclaiming spaces through artistic creation and expression. Algerian women in the south have played an equally important role in demonstrations against fracking in recent years, with concerns for the fragile water systems of an already water scarce region. This paper discusses the political agency of Algerian women, with a focus on how they are protecting their environments, drawing on feminist and postcolonial theories and literature to also understand their place in the political discourses and public sphere.
