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The rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman in Algeria this week has sparked outrage against gender-based violence in the country and calls for the return of the death penalty.
The body of the young woman, identified as Chaima, was found in early October at an abandoned gas station in Thenia, 80 kilometers east of the capital Algiers. The victim was beaten, raped and burned alivereported to local media.
The suspect, who is said to have confessed to the crime, is charged with “willful rape and murder with forecast me ambush, using torture“.
Chaima’s mother said the man was a family acquaintance, against whom the young woman had previously filed charges of non-compliance in 2016.
The murder caused a wave of outrage on social media Algeria, where several people condemn the heinous crime “ and demand justice, and many of them demand the return of death penalty, in moratorium in the country since 1993.
In message shared on social networks You can read: “I am Chaima, I was raped in 2016 and I had the courage to file a complaint in a conservative society. I’m still Chaima, it’s 2020 and I was raped again by the same rapist, who stabbed and burned me. #IAmChaima “.
Breaking the “complicit silence”
The Collective of Free and Independent Women of Bejaia, a city on the northeast coast of Algeria, said that Chaima’s murder “adds to the long list of femicides, which continues to grow in the face of complicit silence, the justification for violence and the absence of real measures“.
To “break the silence”, various feminist collectives across the country organized Demonstrations this Thursday against femicide, the murder of women and girls.
In Algiers, the group Algerian Women for Change for Equality organized a demonstration to “denounce the atrocious crimes” that led to the death of Chaima and the 38 women murdered this year.
“We are angry at our murdered sisters” and “those who keep silent are equally responsible,” he shouted around her. 100 protesters who gathered in the center of Algiers before being dispersed by the police.
A woman held a poster with a phrase in French: “We dream of a country where women who talk about rape are heard more than men who talk about the veil.”
In the northwestern city of Oran, the police quickly put an end to the protests. Near 20 people were arrested, including activist Kaddour Chouicha, president of the Oran section of the Human Rights League, said the CNLD prisoners’ rights group.
Some ask for the death penalty, others ask for a change in the law
In a video that circulated on social media and was captured by local television stations, Chaima’s mother addressed the President of Algeria, Abdelmadjid Tebboune directly, demanding the execution of the offender.
Many Algerians have also taken to social media to support the return of the death penalty. “Execution should apply to the murderer, so that he is an example for all those who think of doing the same,” wrote one Twitter user.
“We must open the debate on the death penalty, the monster that killed it has no place in society or in jail,” said another.
But other people from the country execution rejected as the best way to stop femicide.
Femicídio Algeria, the group that accompanies these murders, said: “It is not because of the death penalty that we (Chaima) will do justice to him, it is the law that must be changed and applied.”
Activists count to 38 femicides in Algeria so far this year. Were recorded 60 in 2019, although the fact that there are so many unreported or unconfirmed cases makes the actual number “much larger”.
Hassina Oussedik, Director of Amnesty International in Algeria, told AFP that the country needs “change mindsets and the judicial system for the psychological and legal assistance of the victims, launching national awareness campaigns, opening shelters and training the different institutions ”.
“The death penalty is not an impediment. It is discriminatory and does not protect the most vulnerable,” he concluded.
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