Clinton in Algeria to Discuss Mali, Women’s Participation

Photo Credit: Saul Loeb/AP

A week after the first ever U.S.-Algeria Strategic Dialogue took place, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travelled to Algeria with State Department officials to discuss how best to strengthen the U.S.-Algerian relationship amid concerns over the situation in Mali. “Algeria’s importance has become ever more important and it will really be a central focus in the talks between the secretary and president [of Algeria],” a State Department official said. Richard Downie of the Center for Strategic and International Studies agreed that “the approach on Mali must go beyond (West African regional bloc) ECOWAS and must include Algeria.”

State Department officials stressed the importance of working with Algeria on other issues, saying the U.S. is “focused on what more we can do on the economic side, on the commercial side, on the education, and on political engagement.” The official praised Algeria on “broadened women’s engagement” and “women’s participation in the political scene.” With a quota law requiring 30 percent women’s participation in government, Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia said, “any electoral list which does not include the stipulated number of women candidates will be excluded,” from elections. However, an article in International Business Times argued the “prominence of female lawmakers is but a façade – Algeria is an authoritarian, essentially one-party state, in which an ancient patriarchy rules.”