Toumi, Khalida
(1958–)

Khalida Toumi is one of the pioneers of the feminist movement in Algeria.

PERSONAL HISTORY

Toumi was known as Khalida Messaoudi before she reclaimed her maiden name. She was born on 13 March 1958 in Ain Bessem, a village in the Berber region of Kabylie in Algeria (although her ancestral village is Sidi Ali Moussa). Her father sent her to school, and she later entered the University of Algiers in 1977 to pursue a degree in mathematics. After graduating from the École Normale Supérieure in 1983, she taught mathematics from 1984 until 1991.

INFLUENCES AND CONTRIBUTIONS

In 1981, Toumi founded the Collectif féminin (Women's Grouping) not only to oppose the ministerial interdiction on Algerian women leaving the country unless accompanied by a male family member, but also to oppose state endorsement of the discriminatory Family Code, which the National Assembly eventually adopted in 1984. Following the adoption of this code, Toumi presided over the Association for Equality between Men and Women, founded by a group of Trotskyite militants. In 1985, she co-founded and became a member of the executive committee of the Algerian League of Human Rights. She later distanced herself from the Trotskyite militants and in 1990 founded the Independent Association for the Triumph of Women's Rights.

Toumi staunchly opposed Islamist ideology and endorsed the government's cancellation of the January 1992 legislative elections, which the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win. During the years of violence and terrorism in Algeria in the 1990s—she herself was publicly threatened with death by FIS Islamic militants in June 1993, and was slightly injured in a June 1994 bomb attack on a secularist demonstration in which she was participating—she traveled to Western countries to provide an anti-Islamist perspective. Toumi also participated in government during that period. She was a member of the National Consultative Council from 1992–1993. A member of the Rassemblement pour la Culture et la Démocratie (RCD), she won a seat in the national assembly in 1997 and served as the RCD's national vice president for human rights and women's issues. From 2000–2001, Toumi was vice president of the National Commission to Reform the Educational System.

After profound disagreements with the RCD's president SAID SADI, she severed relations with the RCD in January 2001, at the peak of the crisis in her native Kabylie; she was subsequently expelled from the RCD. In May 2002, she became minister of culture and communication, as well as the government's spokesperson, the first woman ever to hold that job.

In 1993 Toumi published Une Algérienne Debout (Unbowed: an Algerian woman confronts Islamic fundamentalism). It appeared in English translation in 1998.

THE WORLD'S PERSPECTIVE

Within Algeria, Toumi has in recent years lost her credibility as a staunch proponent of democracy because of her loyalty to President abdelaziz bouteflika, harshly criticized today for his authoritarianism and alliance with Islamists. The independent press and most advocates of democracy did not wish to see Bouteflika re-elected in April 2004.

BIOGRAPHICAL HIGHLIGHTS

Name: Khalida Toumi

Birth: 1958, Ain Bessem, Kabylie of Algeria

Nationality: Algerian Berber

Education: Studies at University of Algiers; graduated from the École Normale Supérieure, 1983

PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY:

• 1981: Founded the Women's Grouping
• 1985: Co-founded Algerian League of Human Rights
• 1990: Founded the Independent Association for the Triumph of Women's Rights
• 1992: Member, National Consultative Council
• 1993: Threatened with death by the Islamic Salvation Front; publishes Une Algérienne Debout (Unbowed: an Algerian woman confronts Islamic fundamentalism)
• 1997: Elected to Algeria's National Assembly; receives the Prix International Alexander Langer Pro-europa
• 1998: Receives the Liberal International Prize for Freedom
• 2000: Vice president, National Commission to Reform the Educational System
• 2001: Breaks with the Rassemblement pour la Culture et la Démocratie
• 2002: Becomes minister of culture and communication and government spokesperson

Internationally she has received various awards for her contributions, including the Prix International Alexander Langer Pro-Europa in 1997, and an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, in 1998. In 1998 she also received the Liberal International Prize for Freedom.

LEGACY

Toumi will be remembered as a feminist pioneer in Algeria and a notable Berber politician.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Messaoudi, Khalida, with Schemla, Elisabeth. Unbowed: An Algerian Woman Confronts Islamic Fundamentalism, translated by Anne C. Vila. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.

                                                     Yahia Zoubir
                               updated by Michael R. Fischbach