Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Yasmina Allouche
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Profile: Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria’s longest serving president (2 March 1937-17 September 2021)
Algeria’s longest reigning president Abdelaziz Bouteflika will be remembered as the man who helped Algeria transition from a brutal decade-long war, and reshaped the country’s international standing after years of isolation, but also the man who used reforms and amendments to stay in office for life. Born on 2 March...
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The cases of Shamima Begum and Rahaf Mohammed tell us a lot about how we define victimhood
Behind every headline there is a multi-layered story, and behind some stories there is a Muslim reading it and rolling their eyes. This is particularly true if you are a Muslim woman scrolling online; at least one eye-roll a day is mandatory. On one hand you have teenagers fleeing alleged...
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#FBFightsPalestine
Activists launched the #FBFightsPalestine media campaign against Facebook (FB) this week to condemn Facebook’s deliberate targeting of pages which support Palestinian rights. Social media users across Twitter and Facebook used the hashtag #FBFightsPalestine to draw attention to the campaign. Coordinated by Sada Social Centre, the campaign began on Tuesday evening this week...
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Arab fashion rocks the runway at London Fashion Week
Arab designers take to the catwalk at London Fashion Week...
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The 1982 Hama Massacre
The city of Hama became known as a Brotherhood stronghold and the centre of anti-regime uprisings...
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'It makes no sense': an Irish mother's fight to return her 3 abducted children from Algeria
On a summer’s evening in July 2015, three young children were taken by their father from Ireland to Algeria while their mother waited for them at home. Kamel Fekkar was supposed to be on a routine visit, so the children’s mother, Gina Davis, from Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, “wasn’t expecting...
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Western Sahara explainer
About 570,000 Sahrawis live in the region, the vast majority in refugee camps along Algeria’s border for the last 26 years....
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Macron’s money mission in moving beyond Algeria’s past
Young and brimming with enthusiasm, the then presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron created shock waves when he visited Algeria earlier this year and described France’s 132-year colonial period boldly as a “crime against humanity”. Ten months later, France’s youngest-ever President adopted a more traditional conciliatory tone during his 12 hour...
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Profile: Ahmed Ben Bella, first president of Algeria (25 December 1916 - 11 April 2012)
Ahmed Ben Bella’s intelligence, ambition and love of his country marked him as a natural leader. Born on 25 December 1918 in the Algerian town of Marnia to Moroccan parents, he showed promise from a young age. Ben Bella’s father believed the same and moved his birth year to 1916...
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#SaudiMovieTitles
Today Saudi Arabia announced it will open cinemas in the Kingdom next year for the first time in 35 years. The move is part of a series of social reforms by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to shake up the ultra-conservative Kingdom. The government will begin licensing cinemas with the first...
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A Moroccan story through fashion
London Fashion Week kicked off in the British capital last week and for the first time included a debut of Moroccan fashion as Stories from Morocco was launched....
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Bringing hope to Syria this Christmas through song
School children sing at the Singing for Syrians in the House of Commons...
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‘If I don’t give myself hope, I will not survive,’ says sister of Egypt detainee
“A day where I witnessed with my own eyes humanity being demolished.” That’s what Fatima Halawa, 26, replies when asked what the word “Rabaa” reminds her of. Memories of what happened on 14 August 2013 in Cairo’s Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square remain painful for those who suffered abuse at first...
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Remembering the 1952 Egyptian Revolution
What: Egyptian Revolution of 1952 Where: Cairo, Egypt When: July 22-26, 1952 What happened? The Egyptian army’s failures became evident after the Arab-Israeli war in 1948 with many of the serving officers accusing King Farouk of abandoning them. Lieutenant Colonel Gamel Abdel Nasser, who served in the war, formed a clandestine group called the...
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Remembering Algeria’s Independence Day
Algeria’s war of independence against colonial France, which had occupied the country for 132 years, began on 1 November 1954...
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#Wear_Algerian_for_Eid
The celebratory holiday of Eid this week had a traditional twist as Algerians took to social media to launch the hashtag #Wear_Algerian_for_Eid in a bid to encourage locals to tap into their country’s culture and don traditional wear for the occasion. Muslims traditionally wear new clothes and plan special outfits...
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50 years of arrests, evictions and interrogations for Palestinian children
The condition of Palestinian children, who have lived under occupation for the last five decades, was the main concern raised at the congressional meeting held yesterday by Ramallah-based NGO Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP). The panel of experts and lawyers spoke about the daily, systematic abuse Palestinians are forced...
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Remembering the massacre of 45,000 Algerians
What: French massacre of Algerians When: 8 May 1945 Where: Setif, Guelma and surrounding areas What Happened? As Europe celebrated the beginning of the end of World War II with Germany surrendering on 8 May 1945, thousands of Algerian men, women and children were mobilised by the French in Algeria to mark the...
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How the empty ballot boxes echo Algeria’s hollow hope
As Algerians take to the ballot box today to vote in the country’s legislative elections, campaigns boycotting the vote have received more attention in the last couple of days as politicians make last ditch attempts to urge people to vote. The latest campaign of #mansotich (a play on words which...
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The politics of being Berber
Demonstrations, strikes, school boycotts, riots and arrests have been the norm in a cyclical manner in relations between the ruling Arab authority and the Berber region in Algeria for the past two decades. What has become an unbridgeable schism separating the two divides is tension often exploited by the...
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Algeria’s repression of the Berber uprising
On 10 March 1980, Algiers' decision to cancel a conference in the University of Tizi Ouzou by renowned Kabyle (Berber) poet Mouloud Mammaeri because of the "risk of public unrest" sparked a rebellion...
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A Night with Mahmoud Darwish
The night was dedicated to remembering Palestinian poet and political activist Mahmoud Darwish’s powerful work on Palestine. ...
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Discover the Botanical Garden of Algiers, Algeria
The stunning garden boasts hundreds of species of plants, decorated fountains, zoo and art museums....
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Why France’s colonial chapter in Algeria is anything but history
Election season can be a circus at the best of times but in France it comes with a dose of controversy. Recent comments by presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron referring to France’s colonialism in Algeria as a “crime against humanity” has caused uproar from one end and mediocre reactions from...
