Dalila the militant	Hopes and dreams of Algeria’s youth by Dalila Taleb, Member of the National People’s Assembly
In Algeria today, even the most basic aspirations are no more than dreams. Working, travelling, planning for the future, making a home—even the simple things of life are beyond the reach of young people whose world has been mangled by violence. And yet they refuse to abandon their dreams and this impels many of them to leave the country, even if it means becoming illegal immigrants in Europe. Like everyone else, young people suffer from the political violence and from insecurity. Many now cannot even study—hundreds of schools have closed in the worst affected areas such as Blida, Medea and Chlef. Social violence is also soaring. The government is in many ways ineffective and daily life has become so difficult that parents can no longer minister to their children’s needs. Some 300,000 young people come onto the job market every year in a country where there are already more than two million unemployed. The middle class is shrinking, the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. The streets of the capital teem with young children selling newspapers or cleaning car windows—scenes which would have been inconceivable a few years ago. If they can’t live normal lives, young Algerians can at least dream about easing their frustrations through freedom of expression. The curfew has been lifted in Algiers, but the state of emergency is still in force and public gatherings are banned. Tickets for the few concerts staged these days are expensive. A black-market ticket costs 800 dinars* when the minimum wage is about 5,000 dinars, and only about one young person in twenty can afford to go. Cinemas are closing. Film clubs have disappeared. Young people don’t bother with youth and cultural centres any more because they are suspicious of anything to do with the authorities and because the courses on offer cost money. The government pleads security reasons for restricting the activities of civil society. But preventing young people from expressing themselves peacefully can only push them towards violent forms of self-expression or even to extremism. They dream of escaping a “sick life” which weighs even more heavily on girls than boys. In big towns, coeducation has survived the recent years of troubles fairly well. But everything is harder for girls. It’s hard for them to go out in an evening with boys, unless they belong to a very restricted social circle. As a result of a profoundly sexist education system, it’s hard for them to learn anything at youth centres except sewing or embroidery, whereas boys can study computer science. And it’s hard to escape the conservatism of most Algerian families, who keep a tight rein on the lives of their daughters. Young people dream of peace. They feel alienated by the violence that confronts them. Talk to them about peace and their enthusiasm is immediately aroused. Young musicians have written some amazing songs about peace. Others express themselves through theatre or painting. In the Youth Action Movement, by teaching them to help one another and show solidarity, we have managed to get teenagers to work together, to overcome their differences and break down the invisible wall that education and traditions have built between boys and girls. All that needs to be done is to bring them together and involve them in a common project. For many young people feel frustrated that there is nothing they can do to bring about change. They dream of peace, but like the rest of the population they are caught between the violence of Islamist extremists and that of the government. In Algeria, sadly, difference is synonymous with intolerance. Hatred between the sexes, between different ways of looking at things, between regions, between Arabs and Berbers has been boiling for decades, turning Algeria’s magnificent diversity into an endless source of conflict. Algerians have barely had time to develop democratic practices. Without jobs, without being able to envisage a better life and without hope, young people lounge idly in the streets—“hugging the walls,” as Algerians put it, nicknaming them “hittists” (from the Arabic word hit, meaning “wall”). The young dream, but their dreams turn into nightmares because their elders either do not know how or do not want to talk to them. * 1 Agerian dinar = $0.017 in August 1998	It isn’t easy to be young in Algeria, a country where five years of violence have claimed nearly 100,000 lives and economic upheavals are having drastic social consequences. In spite of everything, today’s young Algerians refuse to abandon their hopes and dreams How can the new generation of Algerians afford the luxury of a carefree youth?   Because of a longstanding housing crisis, young Algerians escape from crowded apartments into the streets where they wait hopefully for a job to turn up. More and more Algerians live in the street, either to keep clear of violent areas or simply because they are too poor to afford lodging.    A knot of bystanders in rue Didouche Mourad, one of the main thoroughfares of Algiers. If they can’t live normal lives, young Algerians can at least dream of expressing themselves freely Students leave the campus of Bab Ezzouar university, in the suburbs of Algiers. Their clothing indicates the different paths they have chosen.     For these young people in an Algiers street an evening concert provides a rare entertainment opportunity. Girls usually choose to stay at home. Baseball hats, anoraks and world music. The dreams of young Algerians are like those of many other young people the world over. But only a wealthy minority can afford modern consumer goods.     On a bench in Bab El Oued. . . Will Algeria, with all its contradictions, dreams and temptations, ever become reconciled with itself?   Dalila the militant Thirty-two-year-old Dalila Taleb already has a long career of political activism behind her. The October 1988 riots in Algiers, in which more than 500 young people died, filled her with passion to defend her country’s youth, tragically left to fend for itself. In 1993, with a group of friends, she founded the Youth Action Movement (RAJ) which was an overnight success. Dalila, its president, quickly became one the most popular figures among the youth in the poorer sections of the capital. The RAJ’s members range from girls wearing the veil to pop music fans, from Islamist supporters to modernizers. And the movement works, despite the constraints and problems confronting voluntary organizations in Algeria. Without losing touch with the grassroots, Dalila went into politics and in the 1997 parliamentary elections became an opposition FFS (Front of Socialist Groups) member of the National People’s Assembly representing her home town of Bejaia. In the Assembly, where she is a member of the youth, sports and voluntary work commission, she has made a name for herself as an orator who speaks out against all kinds of violence and arbitrary behaviour— whoever its perpetrators may be.
The UNESCO Courier