Why did Algerian women miss the presidential elections?

Abdelhakim Hazaqa - Algeria

International reports put Algeria in the first place in the Arab world in terms of women's representation in the House of Representatives five years ago, by 31.6%, exceeding the global average in elected and estimated councils by 22%.

The presence of the Algerian woman in parliament belongs to the first Constituent Assembly the day after independence
In 1962, she attended mujahedat such as Belmihoub Mariam, Bazi Safia, Zarif, Meshais Fatima, and Msli Fadila. Mujahid became the first woman minister in 1982 to take up the social protection portfolio.

The early experience of political participation allowed women to emerge in elected and executive bodies, with the current parliament counting 120 members, not counting the National Assembly, not to mention many retired ministers, heads of parties and National Societies, human rights activists as well as academics with an international reputation.

But the unwillingness of women to run for president since democratic openness 30 years ago is a striking paradox, observers say. Only in one case did Algerian women compete for the presidency with prisoner Louisa Hanoune, who participated three times in a row.

Of the 23 candidates today in the 2019 deadline, the Independent Electoral Authority allowed five of them to run, not including a woman.

The issue raises many questions about the reasons for feminist reluctance to the presidency, its relationship to the prevailing social culture and political climate. Therefore, Al Jazeera Net has followed the subject with women's symbols and public figures and recorded the opinions of citizens and specialists.

Heavy responsibility
Parliamentary speaker Naima Salhi, the head of the Justice and Welfare Party, said her political formation seeks to "provide elected people in local and national councils to build a solid ground towards the presidency, by recommending a candidate with the qualities of a leader of a country the size of a continent like Algeria."

She confirmed to Al Jazeera Net that her party decided not to participate in the presidencies of 2019 with its own candidate so as not to distract the electoral base of the political current it represents (Novembre Badisi). She explained that her lofty purpose, as a political woman who heads a party, is to make statesmen for the presidency and not run for this particular post.

For her part, former Minister of Culture Nadia Labidi said that such responsibility is not linked to personal choice alone, because the circumstances have an important role in it.

"I do not hide you that I did not think about running for a position that requires high qualifications and privileges, and I, as a minister, had already realized the magnitude of the requirements of responsibility, especially in the historical situation we are living."

She told Al Jazeera Net that the role of women is lacking in politics, economy, science and the arts, calling for "work so that they have a greater place in society, then will appear a woman's candidacy for the presidential election as a natural thing."

Reject and endorse
The views of the elite and citizens differed from the issue of the presidency of women, at least in the current circumstances, where the preacher Ali conscious that he favors the position of president for men. He justified his position that the Grand Imamate requires honesty and strength, while women are emotional in nature, and there are responsibilities that are not worthy of them.

However, writer Mohamed Bouazara disagrees: "She deserves to be president after the impotence of men." He asked, "If the people are tired of the rule of corrupt men, is it not worthy to elect a woman of the type of Halima Yacoub, who transferred Singapore to economic power, how can we not elect a president the size of this woman?".

Faisal Osman, a graduate student, denied the existence of politicians, let alone qualified politicians for less leadership positions than the presidency. He said that the political act is manly in nature and can not be female, because of the firmness and intensity contrary to the psychological composition.

Alaeddine Kenioua, a pharmaceutical pharmacist, shared the view that women should not take sensitive positions "because of political immaturity and their formation in society on specific roles."

But Dr. Fatiha Hortani welcomed the woman's ruling, saying that it was the narrow male view that wanted her to be imprisoned at home and in the kitchen. She also called for giving her the opportunity to prove her good governance and fairness in governing the state.

Masculine toast
Sociologist Nasser Jabi explains the phenomenon of the lack of interest of women in running for the presidential elections because the majority of society did not care about political work in the current circumstances.

He explained that the attitude towards the elections was overshadowed by the national reluctance, where it received attention from only a few groups, and employed it as a social elevator, and to get closer to the de facto authority, even if it paid a high price on the moral and values, because of the practices of the political process may not Women can accept it, as some men do.

Gabi added that the woman was absent from the political party, which could have qualified her for the presidential or local electoral process.

He said the party was dominated by a male nerve that feared an educated woman, who could compete with men inside him, based on the rules of a new political game that was morally and morally cleaner.

Regarding the reaction of the community, Gabi said that he did not object to women who ran for all positions, including the presidency, as women. He accepts or rejects on the basis of the political program, not sex.

He pointed out that the majority of Algerians are educated young people living in large and medium-sized cities, and welcomed the occupation of women for many leadership positions and important, such as the judiciary, the Ministry, law and others.

He concluded by saying that the complex in some aspects more sophisticated and modern in its view of women than some of the male elites dominating parties and the political process as a whole.