A figure underestimated because of the omerta which surrounds these murders, affirms the site feminicides-dz.com which, for lack of official statistics, tries to document this terrible reality.
The rape and murder of Chaïma Saadou, a 19-year-old young woman in early October, sparked a stir in Algeria, reviving the debate on the urgency of the fight against violence against women. His body was found in a disused gas station near Boumerdes, east of Algiers. Chaïma was beaten and raped before being burned alive, according to local media.
The suspect, who confessed, is being prosecuted for “rape and willful homicide with premeditation and ambush using torture”. It is, according to the mother of the victim, an old acquaintance of the family, against whom the young girl had filed a rape complaint in 2016.
“# jesuischaïma” (I am Chaima)
Chaïma’s death triggered a wave of indignation on social networks, where Internet users denounce a “villainous” crime and demand justice. In a video broadcast on social networks and picked up by local television, the mother of the victim, speaking directly to Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, calls for the execution of the culprit.
The Algerian president has ordered the application of maximum penalties, without the possibility of relief or pardons, against the perpetrators of crimes of kidnapping people, “whatever the ins and outs “.
In memory of the victim, a message is widely shared on the web: “I am Chaïma, I was raped in 2016 and I had the courage to file a complaint in a conservative society. I am still Chaïma, we are in 2020 and I was raped again by the same rapist who stabbed and burned me. # JeSuisChaïma “.
“Break the silence”
The Algeria Femincides Facebook account has so far identified 39 femicides for the year 2020 alone, around sixty in 2019. “The infamous murder of Chaïma Saadou is added to a long list of femicides which continues to grow in the face of the silence accomplice, the justification of violence and the absence of real measures, “ reacted the Free and Independent Collective of Women of Béjaïa (north-east).
In order to “break the silence”, the collective demonstrated Thursday, October 8 in Béjaïa. The spirit of solidarity has spread to other cities, notably Oran, Constantine, Tizi Ouzou. In Algiers, the Algerian Women’s Collective for a Change for Equality is organizing rallies to “denounce the heinous crimes of Chaïma, Ikram, Amira, Asma, Razika and the 38 women (victims of femicides) of the year 2020”.
Femicides: omerta
“We have lost one of ours”, it is under this slogan that two feminist activists, Narimane Mouaci Bahi and Wiam Awres, have recorded, since the beginning of the year, the number of women victims of violence. They patiently draw up a regular and macabre count of all those who died under the blows. This work, according to Narimane and Wiam, is necessary in order to understand what some women endure in Algeria.
We are obliged to identify femicides and disseminate them so that Algerian society becomes aware of the seriousness of the situation of women
Narimane Mouaci Bahi
in El Watan
They also participate in giving a face, a name and a story to the victims, so that their death is not in vain and that it gives food for thought on the situation of women in Algeria. This work is all the more important since one of the characteristics of femicides in Algeria resides in the omerta surrounding these crimes. Women victims of violence are generally buried in indifference.
An undervalued figure
And the figure of 39 femicides, which they arrived at based on sometimes fragmentary media information, is far below the reality. “This figure represents the cases identified after a daily search in the media and on social networks”, they explain.
The actual figure is much higher and should be provided by an institutional census mechanism. This device does not exist. “The fact remains that 39 women killed, these are 39 citizens that we have lost. These are women who had lives, dreams, families and sometimes children” Narimane Mouaci Bahi and Wiam Awres.
