Wassila network

The Wassila network (French: réseau Wassila) or l'Association contre les violences faites aux femmes et aux enfants or Avife (Association against violence done to women and children) is a network of Algerian citizens' groups and institutions that defend women's rights, established in October 2000.

[1] The Wassila network was created in October 2000, near the end of the Algerian Civil War, a context within which women's rights were under attack both practically and legally.

[2] Member groups in 2013 included SOS Children's Villages, Atustep, Tharwa Fadhma n’Soumer, the Association pour l'émancipation des femmes, Sarp, Amusnaw, Djazaïrouna, medical and mental health professionals, lawyers and human rights activists.

[4] On 16 March 2019, during the "Hirak" 2019 Algerian protests, Saadia Gacem and Faïka Medjahed, members of the Wassila network, together with other women, signed a declaration establishing Femmes algériennes pour un changement vers l'égalité (Algerian women for a shift towards equality), calling for "full and complete equality between female and male citizens, without distinction of gender, class, regional origin of beliefs", announcing the creation of a "feminist square French: carré féministe which will be located each Friday in front of the main gate of the Algiers 1 University starting from 13:00" and calling for "taking into account equal representation of women in any citizens' initiative aiming to solve" the issues of the Hirak protests.

[6][7] The Wassila network withdrew from the 15 June conference,[8] on the grounds that the meeting "'did not stated clearly and unambiguously the fundamental and non-negotiable political principle of equality between men and women.