Algerian Specificities: Algeria’s Place in the 2011 Arab Revolutions

Opposition to the Algerian government has not yet resulted in mass protests, but the end of the state of emergency law reflects how the region’s political landscape has been forever altered.

by Martin Evans

In the Arab World, 2011 is developing into the year of revolution. Following the dramatic events in Tunisia and Egypt, a chain reaction has exposed the region’s autocratic regimes to popular pressure like never before. Whatever the outcome of these events, the relationship between the rulers and the ruled in the Arab World has forever changed.

The popular rage driving the protests in various Arab nations has its routes in several, common grievances. By and large, in these countries, young, educated, ambitious populations are rising up against entrenched regimes. After having experienced years of what is known in Arabic as hogra or “humiliation”, these young men and women have taken to the streets to protest against corruption, social inequalities, the absence of job opportunities, and poor housing, which that have suffocated their lives for so long. These young populations – as revealed by the slogans used by demonstrators in Tunisia and Egypt - want a different kind of future. They have mobilized to demand a stake in society, to be treated with dignity and respect, and to regain hope in the future of both their countries and themselves. No less importantly, these young demonstrators have chosen to put an end to the humiliation, which has been heaped upon them from both their leaders as well as Western governments. This frustration is rooted in anger towards their leaders – widely perceived as old and out of touch - for allying themselves with the United States and its ‘war on terror’, as a means of justifying the repression of their own peoples. Indeed, Eugene Rogan, author of The Arabs has described the cumulative humiliations endured by Arabs during the ten years since September 11 2001 as the “worst decade in modern Arab history”.