New proposed law on criminalizing husbands ‘violence against wives raises controversy

Women’s associations launched a parliamentary campaign which intend to submit a legal proposal for Parliament to criminalize “violence by husband against wife”, that was signed by forty parliamentarians until now.

This proposal raised a controversy between supporters and opponents of the initiative, as the “Algerian Observatory of Women” considered it a negative step to encourage divorce and transfer the problems of couples to the courts, while “Wasila network” and the Society for “women’s liberation” demanded the criminalizing of the husband who beats his wife, through the enactment of new laws which make “husband’s violence” a misdemeanor that should be punished by law.

With regard to the parliamentary campaign to criminalize “violence” of husband against wife, the spokeswoman of “Wassila Network” Rokia Nacer, said the Association came to the relief this phenomenon, especially since husbands were responsible for 60% of the cases of violence against women, and this is what requires criminalizing these attacks by enacting new laws approved by the Parliament.

For her part, Head of the association “women’s liberation” Ms. Soumia Salehi said that the current legislation is insufficient to cope with the increased violence against women, which is confirmed by statistics, adding that she and many women’s groups are working on the proposal for a new law which is intended to combat violence against women, through the signatures’ campaign in parliament that included more than 40 MPs to submit a new proposal to Parliament for approval, as the proposed new law, includes the “aggression” of husband against wife a “misdemeanor” that should be punished by law.