Al-Musharaka Blog

“… Toilets in Algeria: a “free press” defying the guardian of the gate”
(translation courtesy of MidEast Wire)
On March 20, Al Arabiya.net, a Saudi-owned online news service, reported that: “The walls of some toilets in Algeria have become endless spaces and pages of revelation and harsh expressions and criticisms against living conditions and the decision makers, starting from President Bouteflika and ending with the smallest municipal official. Everything can be published in this innovative press for it is neither filtered nor dependent upon the guardian of the gate, an expression commonly used in the media to refer to the person who blocks all that is not printable…

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“Even though there are hundreds of newspapers in Algeria, including 40 dailies at least, as well as thousands of popular coffee shops which are not monitored by the secret police as it is the case in some Arab states, this has not prevented many Algerians from resorting to the toilet walls… to reach wide factions of people... One of the commentators on the toilet walls, a young educated man who refused to reveal his identity, said to Al Arabiya.net that what he wrote on the toilet walls “echoed the voices of the oppressed at the bottom of society and those who can’t afford a newspaper or the fee for an hour of chatting in Internet cafes. In the toilet, that doesn’t cost anything…”.

“According to this young man, writing on toilet walls was not only something related to Algerians since they are part of an entire “Arab people” suffering from the marginalization of Arab regimes on all levels… The young man expressed his fear that the authorities in Arab countries will impose a fine on the free comments made by the visitors of the toilets or divest anyone entering the toilet from any writing means. In reality, almost every toilet in Algiers includes writing varying between sexual revelations, failed romances and criticisms of reality and especially political reality.

“There is also the faction of “advisors” who write pieces of advice to the commentators, asking them to be polite and not write on the walls. It is noticeable that topics of sexual inclination and sometimes homosexuality prevail according to Massoud Hidna, the head of the sociology department at Ashourouq Al Yawmi newspaper. He said to Al Arabiya.net that he personally read samples of these comments…, as well as comments praising the armed groups which went back to the years of the security crisis. According to Massoud, what these commentators and writers were doing went against Islamic behavior which prevented talking while heeding nature’s call.

“He said that writing was a kind of silent talk which necessitated a reply then evolved into mutual insults if the issue was controversial. As for Yassine, a college student, he said to Al Arabiya.net that the comments of the students in the university’s toilets was an irrefutable sign of the deterioration of the education level because it “means that all that is being learned in class is unfortunately being addressed in the toilets…”.

“As for journalist Zahiya Mansar, she had another opinion on the subject and she wrote in Ashourouq Al Yawmi that: “The phenomenon of transferring the values from the street and onto the dark walls is not new in Algerian society… In the November revolution, the public toilets’ walls were a means to convey messages to the rebels under the great blockade imposed by France and which prevented any information from reaching them”.

“As for caricaturist Baki Boukhalfa, he believed that people to expressing themselves in public toilets was a very honest behavior since it was carried out by someone who had escaped the world in which he couldn’t find his freedom to a world which he believes is wider than the outside world… He said to Al Arabiya.net that: “To express oneself in these places is truly creative because those who are writing are doing so without any mask. Moreover, one can see beauty in the graphic and calligraphic aspect of the writings and the drawings”.

“Dr. Abdul Nasser Jabi, a sociologist,… said to Al Arabiya.net: “What is kept in the dark in the society is always oppressed… In the case of the toilets, two main topics are addressed: sex and politics. These are considered the two main oppressed topics in Arab societies, which is why some resort to the toilets to communicate with harsh and direct expressions that neither the newspapers, nor the satellite channels nor any other communication means can handle…” - Source, Al Arabiya.net, Middle East