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PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHAS #0274/01 0811232
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 221232Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY ALGIERS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7217
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 3090
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 9217
RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT 6709
RUEHNM/AMEMBASSY NIAMEY 1893
RUEHBP/AMEMBASSY BAMAKO 0917
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 000274 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SOCI KISL PGOV AG
SUBJECT: ISLAMOFASHION: VEILED BODY, VEILED MIND? 
 
¶1. SUMMARY: Less than a decade after a bloody civil war 
fought to keep Islamic extremists at bay, more Algerian women 
than ever are wearing the hidjab (veil or headscarf).  The 
phenomenon is only partly due to religion, as the hidjab has 
become both a social trend as well as a tool Algerian women 
can use to gain access to public spaces in a society that has 
become more conservative and chauvinistic over the past ten 
years.  In addition to offering protection from extremist 
scorn, it also facilitates entry to universities, to the 
workforce and to marriage, and in many ways has become the 
key to a good reputation and position within society.  A 
recent survey revealed that 70 percent of Algerian women aged 
18-49 now wear some form of the hidjab.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. The result is a low-intensity, daily battle between 
feminine independence and religious dogma being waged on the 
streets of Algeria's cities.  While more and more women are 
veiled in some way than ever before, the hidjab itself 
paradoxically has become an expression of individuality and 
non-comformity.  Almost a century after the birth of 
Algeria's mass Islamist movements, the Algerian Islamist is a 
far cry from the 1970s caricature of short Afghan trousers, 
basketball sneakers, a false turban, beard, and a siwak stick 
between the teeth.  This is true for women, as well: the 
traditional long black or grey hidjab has slowly disappeared 
in favor of a less severe Islamic outfit -- often a long, 
trendy shirt and a pair of pants, sometimes even jeans.  The 
phenomenon now also starts at an earlier age.  It is not 
uncommon to see pre-adolescent girls covering their heads, 
although the plain white scarf of yesteryear has now been 
replaced by every color and pattern imaginable. 
 
MORE CONSERVATIVE, NOT MORE RELIGIOUS 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. Sociologists agree that the veil is not always a religious 
commitment, but rather indicates a social trend.  Louisa Ait 
Hamou, a professor at the University of Algiers and member of 
an active female advocacy network called Wassila, told us 
recently that today's hidjab "has nothing to do with that big 
black bag women used to wear in the 90s" out of conviction or 
to hide their social condition.  Without a traditional 
emphasis on concealing beauty and coquetry, the Algerian 
hidjab of 2009 walks a fine line between maintaining its 
religious value and becoming chic and trendy.  Sociologist 
Nacer Djabi explained that the changing hidjab is a symbol 
"of the failure of the kind of radical Islam that used to 
prevail in Muslim societies, especially in Algeria."  He 
noted that a society becoming more conservative was not the 
same as a society becoming more religious, a distinction he 
said Western observers often failed to make.  Djabi gave the 
example of fathers or brothers who oblige their daughters and 
sisters to wear the veil simply to be more respected in both 
their neighborhoods and in society at large.  In this sense, 
he said, "for the majority of young girls, the veil is a 
passport to university and, later, to employment."  Linda 
Bouadma, a journalist at Algerian Channel 3 television, told 
us that women, especially those from conservative 
backgrounds, are "using the hidjab to negotiate access to 
public spaces in a conservative and fiercely macho society." 
 
A VEILED FRANCOPHONE HEROINE 
---------------------------- 
 
¶4. Young Algerian women have a veiled role model all their 
own: TV star Khedidja Ben Gana, an anchorwoman for Al Jazeera 
satellite television who fled Algeria in 1994 when Islamic 
radicals threatened her life for not wearing the hidjab.  She 
surprised everyone in 2004 when she decided to start wearing 
the veil, causing audiences across Algeria and the Arab world 
to buzz with discussion of "Khedidja's salmon-colored 
hidjab."  Ben Gana scored a major success that same year when 
she interviewed French Foreign Minister Dominique de 
Villepin.  Algerians viewed it as a delightful humiliation of 
their former colonial oppressor: a hard-hitting interview in 
perfect French by a veiled woman at a time when France was 
legislating against the veil. 
 
ISLAMIC FASHION A BOOM INDUSTRY 
------------------------------- 
 
¶5. A survey conducted by the NGO Center for Information and 
Documentation on the Rights of Women and Children (CIDDEF), 
with the support of the Spanish Agency for International 
Cooperation, revealed recently that the hidjab is becoming 
the outfit of choice in Algeria.  A sample of women aged 18 
 
ALGIERS 00000274  002 OF 002 
 
 
to 49 revealed that seven out of ten are wearing the hidjab. 
However, the survey points out that there are regional 
variations.  Fewer women are wearing the hidjab in Algiers 
and the Kabylie region just to the east than elsewhere, with 
65 percent of those who are not veiled living in the Kabylie 
region alone.  It also showed that the full "Iranian veil" 
(the "djilbab" in Algeria) accounts for only two percent of 
the veiled population.  The Syrian hidjab shop, Sajida 
("Prostrate"), has become the pinnacle of Islamic fashion 
locally.  Since opening its first store in Algiers in 2005, 
the brand has grown dramatically, opening a second shop in 
the capital and eight others around the country. 
 
DIFFERING OPINIONS 
------------------ 
 
¶6. Nearly ten years after a violent civil war fought against 
those who would impose the hidjab, more Algerian parents 
today are imposing it on their children.  The irony is not 
lost on Fadela Chitour, a senior member of the Wassila 
network.  Although she conceded the veil has become a 
passport for work, marriage and reputation, she added that 
"we certainly did not fight for veiling little girls in 
primary school."  Sociologist Nacer Djabi points out that 
Algerian society has come to accept socially what it refused 
to accept religiously.  Meriem, a law student shopping at a 
Sajida store in Algiers, told us, "There is no verse in the 
Qur'an that defines a particular concept of the hidjab.  As 
you can see, I am veiled, but I am more elegant than many 
non-veiled girls."  CIDDEF head Nadia Ait-Zai suggested that 
girls like Meriem are missing the point entirely with a false 
statement of independence: "When we start to veil little 
schoolgirls," she told us recently, "we are not veiling 
little faces -- we are veiling their minds." 
PEARCE