You have the right to be safe from all types of abuse and neglect. You do not have to put up with child abuse. It is OK to complain and to talk to someone. The law can protect you if you let the authorities know about what is happening.
What is child abuse?
Child abuse is any action towards a child or young person under 18 that harms or puts at risk their physical, psychological or emotional health or development.
Child abuse can be:
- physical abuse: punching, hitting, strangling, slapping, kicking, shaking, biting, throwing and burning;
- emotional or psychological abuse: constant criticism, controlling behaviour, teasing, ignoring, yelling, rejection, exposing a child to violence between parents or other household members, or exposure to drug use;
- neglect: failing to meet your basic needs for adequate supervision, food, clothing, shelter, safety, hygiene, medical care and education;
- sexual abuse: any sexual act or threat to you including an adult involving you in a sexual activity by using their power over you or taking advantage of your trust, and deliberate and inappropriate touching or language.
Child abuse can happen anywhere: at school, at a child-care centre, in the community or at home. It could be done by any adult, like a parent, a caregiver, a teacher or a family friend.
Is it ok for my parents to physically punish me or hit me if I’ve done something wrong?
No one is allowed to use extreme force to hurt you, but it is not against the law for your parents to use physical punishment, such as a smack.
If you feel that you are being punished too harshly, too often or are constantly scared of being hurt, or you have any injury after being hit, you should contact someone for help.
What should I do if I’m being abused or scared that I will be abused?
If you are in immediate danger of being hurt or abused call the police on 000 and if you can, go to a secure place like to a trusted family friend, your school, a Police station, or a medical centre.
If you have been hurt you should go to a doctor or hospital, so they can make sure you are OK.
If you are being abused you should talk to an adult you trust, like a close friend, your doctor or a teacher. They may have to report what is happening to the authorities, but the person who hurt you will not be told who reported it. We have provided you with a list of important contacts to call at the end of this page if you need to talk to someone else.
What happens once the authorities are contacted?
If someone contacts either the police or Child Protection Services, they can come and investigate what is happening. Remember, information you give them is kept confidential the person who hurt you will not be told who contacted them. There are a number of things that may then happen when the authorities investigate.
- If you are in immediate danger, they can move you to a safe place.
- The authorities can seek a ‘court order’ to prevent the person from hurting you (this is when a judge says that someone must not hurt you or else the court can punish them).
- If they think that there is a chance you might be harmed, they will work with you, your family and other professionals to make sure you are safe. This might include giving you help, counselling, information and recommending you to health or other services. This may happen by an ‘intervention order’ or a ‘protection order’.
- If the situation is more serious, they may create a plan to protect you.
- You will only be removed from your family as a last resort, and only if you are considered to be at an immediate risk of serious harm.
To talk about anything that’s troubling you at all call the Kids Helpline. This is a supportive service for people between 5 and 25 years of age. They are available 24 hours.
You can email them at: www.kidshelp.com.au/teens/get-help/email-counselling
They also have an online chat service at: www.kidshelp.com.au/teens/get-help/web-counselling
1800 55 1800
If you’d like some help reporting child abuse or need more information you can call the Child Abuse Prevention Service
1800 688 009
State Child Protection Hotline
This hotline provides child protection services and advice. You can report the abuse yourself by contacting your State’s Child Abuse Hotline.
Department of Human Services - Child Protection Services
13 12 78 (24 hours)
1800 numbers operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and are free* if you call from a landline.
You do not have to give them your name. If you are worried about privacy, you could have a look at this short article on ‘Looking after Personal Privacy’ at: www.1800respect.org.au/information.html
* If your mobile phone service provider is part of the Optus network, including Virgin, calls to the Kids Helpline are free. But if your mobile phone service provider is from other networks, calls may cost money and be listed on your phone bill.
If you don’t want to spend a lot of money on a call to an 1800 number from your mobile you can:
- check if the service you are calling has a local number; or
- call the service from your mobile and ask them to call you back.
For any legal questions you have, write us a Lawmail and we can give you free legal advice, information and referrals to local services.
Disclaimer: This is legal information not advice specific to you. If you would like specific advice about a legal question that you have please send us a Lawmail.
Last updated 1 June 2012


It's all about the Benjamins, or C-notes if you prefer. C is the Roman numeral for 100, hence the stately sobriquet. Whatever you call it, a freshly designed $100 bill goes into circulation today. The new bill sports the most advanced security features of any U.S. denomination, including a 3-D security strip that bisects the bill.
The blue strip shows tiny images of bells and the number 100 that shift as the bill is moved. "It's thousands of micro-lenses that make the images look like they are moving," says Sonja Danburg, program manager for the currency education program at the Federal Reserve Board.
Another updated security feature is a color-changing bell in an inkwell.
Additional features include:
- A portrait watermark of old Ben Franklin himself.
- The number 100, which shifts from copper to green.
- Micro-printed words hidden around Franklin's face in the portrait.
- Raised printing.
- Plus, an extra-large 100 on the back of the bill that makes it easier for the visually-impaired to see what denomination they're grabbing.
Toss out the old bills?
It might go without saying, but all currency in circulation right now will continue to be worth the face value, regardless of how many new designs are issued.
"The Federal Reserve doesn't recall older designs. All designs from 1914 remain legal tender," says Danburg.
As you can imagine, not too many bills will last a century. But hundred-dollar bills tend to be the longest-lived as people use them less.
The average lifespan of a $100 bill is 15 years, according to the Fed. That's about three times longer than the average $5 bill, which gets passed around a lot more.
It's not for aesthetic appreciation that bills are updated. According to Fed, all redesigns are driven with security in mind.
At one point in the country's history, as much as one-third of all currency may have been counterfeit. The problem was so bad that the Secret Service was created in 1865 to fight fake money.
Thanks to improved security measures, counterfeit bills are much less of a problem today.
As of September this year, there were $1.16 trillion in Federal Reserve notes in circulation, according to the Federal Reserve. "Less than one one-hundredth of the currency is reported as counterfeit," says Danburg.
It wasn't until the 1990s that the security measures we know today were implemented. Series 1990 added microprinting and a security strip. In 1996, the modern design entered circulation. At that point $100 bills with large portraits, watermarks and color-shifting inks debuted, according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
I'm a little excited to see the new bills. How about you?
Follow me on Twitter: @SheynaSteiner.
Senior investing reporter Sheyna Steiner is a co-author of "Future Millionaires' Guidebook," an e-book written by Bankrate editors and reporters. It's available at all the major e-book retailers.


By Agnes Odhiambo
Published February 15, 2017
The United Nations and world leaders have just commemorated 20 years of work to protect children in conflict situations, stressing progress in the protection of girls who survive sexual violence. Unmentioned, however, is the plight of children born from rape during conflict or political violence.
This reminds me of Akinyi, an 11-year-old girl who, together with her mother, was gang-raped by three men who broke into their home in Kericho in western Kenya in December 2007 during the violence that erupted after a disputed presidential poll. Akinyi, who became pregnant, doesn’t want to have anything to do with the child who was born out of the ordeal almost a decade ago.
“She left the child and went to Mombasa at the Kenyan coast in 2009,” Aoko, her mother, says. “She has never returned. When she calls home and I mention the child, she disconnects the call…. I don’t think her heart will ever like this baby.”
In 2016, I documented the difficulties faced by children born following widespread rape of women and girls between December 2007 and February 2008. Akinyi and her mother were among some 40 women and girls I spoke with.
Women described complex relationships with children they had due to rape, often conflicting emotions of love and hate.
“What should I do with this rape child?” one woman asked me. “I feel bad about having this child, but I love her. She reminds me of the rape but she is my child. Sometimes . . . I want to hit her with an object and hurt her and she dies.”
I found these children face stigma, rejection, and physical and verbal abuse by immediate and extended families, as well as the wider communities. Because of this, they may experience problems getting food, going to school, or accessing health care. Some do not have birth certificates that are important for accessing government services – officials will often demand the name of the father that they do not know when applying to get a birth certificate.
Assistance to victims of Kenya’s 2007 election violence has largely ignored the particular vulnerabilities and needs of children born from rape. The Kenyan government needs to do more to protect these vulnerable children, in part by supporting their mothers. A woman who is abused, scorned, or abandoned following rape, or has lost her home and property during a conflict, is less likely to accept and support her child. The government should ensure these children have access to health care and education, as well as birth registration, and that their mothers and families can receive psycho-social care.
Protecting children during times of political violence should include protecting children born from related rape, too. Kenya, and its development partners, should be strong voices for them and work to ensure they receive protection and assistance.
A Human Rights Watch article.


The United States and many other developed countries are becoming more multi cultural, multi ethnic, and multi racial than ever before. This may to a certain extent cause less communication, interconnectedness or dialogue between diverse individuals. This lack of communication and dialogue, especially in education, manifests itself as less participation and involvement, which negatively affects educational success. Since educational success is highly associated with parental and community involvement, social capital plays a critical role in improving overall successes in education. Educators and policy makers should seek new ways and strategies to improve social capital with greater efficacy. This also includes reexamining leadership styles, practices and setting exemplary leadership frameworks.
Due to the abstract nature of the concept, social capital is mostly defined by its functions or manifestations. In other words, definitions mostly answer the question of what social capital does rather than what it is. Don Cohen and Laurence Prusak (2001) refer to social capital as a dynamic and even organic phenomenon. Their approach also emphasizes social capital’s role and function, rather than social capital itself. They underline (1) how social capital works in organizations, (2) how investments are made in social capital, and (3) the return that these organizations and individuals experience from these investments (p. 3). In this framework, Cohen and Prusak (2001) offer the working definition of social capital as “the stock of active connections among people.” Yet, there seems to be a more concrete definition offered by The World Bank Social Capital Initiative (1998). According to The World Bank Social Capital Initiative, social capital is the “internal, social and cultural coherence of society, the norms and values that govern interactions among people and the institutions in which they are embedded” (p. iii). Thus, social capital is seen as the glue that holds societies together. Consequently. without social capital, society at large will collapse. Due to its importance, researchers from different fields, such including political science, economics and education, investigate social capital, as many people see social capital as a solution to persistent social problems.
In the world of education, social capital is formed by social networks connecting families, schools and communities. In other words, parental and community involvement are the forms of social capital which are most associated with academic success. The World Bank (1998) argues that there is evidence that schools are more successful when parents and community members are actively involved. Discussions about school issues, parental monitoring, active tutoring, providing encouragement, attending school events, responding to school obligations, etc are all examples of parental involvement. Less effective community involvement examples include (1) supporting schools financially, (2) participating in school events, and (3) involving schools in community meetings. Community involvements render teachers more committed. Furthermore, it effects students’ general achievement, including achievement in reading, math, or other specific curricular areas, as well as IQ scores and an array of attitudinal and behavioral outcomes.
Even a cursory review of the leadership literature reveals that there are multiple definitions of leadership, and these all arise from mainly different perceptions and specific disciplinary conceptualizations. For example, some authors choose to treat leadership as a psychological fact while others see it as sociological (Pierce & Newstrom, 2008). In different disciplines, such as education or health, the definitions are based upon the references of that particular discipline. Therefore, a wide range of definitions of leadership are offered, but not a single model or term given. Accordingly, while some leadership approaches focus on the different characteristics between the followers and the leaders, others look at internal or external variables such as representation and effectiveness.
In education, leadership is mostly represented in schools by school administrations. Specifically, principals and teachers are expected to possess the leadership skills necessary to run their schools. Leadership practices are not only expectations but also obligations and requirements as part of the profession. This is especially true for principals. Since they form school policies, they’re considered critical for academic and disciplinary success.
Kouzes and Posner (2007) see the concept of leadership as a practice rather than as a personality type. After several case analyses, surveys and questionnaires, they uncovered five leadership practices common to personal-best leadership experiences as guidance for all leaders. These five practices of exemplary leadership are essentials and applicable for all leaders who want ot get extraordinary things done in organizations, including educational institutions. The five practices are: (1) modeling the way, (2) inspiring a shared vision, (3) challenging the process, (4) enabling others to act, and (5) encouraging the heart.
To improve and benefit from the existing social capital in a family, school and community, the five practices of leadership proposed by Kouzes and Posner may be implemented in K-12 institutions. Accordingly, this model may improve academic and disciplinary success in K-12 education. The following titles will focus on possible actions, attitudes or procedures to improve social capital as conducted by school principals and teachers.
Behaviors are more important than the title that people carry in organizations. It is through behavior that people win the respect of other members of an organization. If leaders want to gain commitment and better standards, they must be models of the behavior they expect from others. Overall, leaders model the way (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). School principals and teachers should act and behave in the best way possible, as exemplary models, towards colleagues, parents and community members if they wish to utilize and improve social capital. Modeling the way can be done by more involvement and participation in the activities organized in and out school. However, principals and teachers should prioritize their needs when they are choosing activities and events. For instance, different ethnic and cultural groups in a community can isolate themselves, since other members of the community may not want to communicate. Although these different groups may open their activities to all community members, lack of communication and dialogue creates isolation and, as explained before, cause lack of trust, reciprocal respect, interaction and safety, all of which are essential to building social capital. Thus, principals and teachers should prioritize communication and dialogue rather than basic social needs such as entertainment. Modeling the way can also include mutual family visits, joining social organizations and participating in community workshops, conferences and diversity meetings. In short, principals and teachers should represent – model the way – rather than present what social capital requires as a discourse.
Keenness, interest, diligence, inspiration, enthusiasm, dreams and imagination are essential factors for leaders in an organization (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). When leaders are visionary, and if their visions are realistic and if they have confidence in their capacity and skill, remarkable achievement can be realized. According to Kouzes and Posner (2007), every organization and social movement begins with a dream. Dream is a force which helps shape the future. However, dreams cannot work alone and must be shared. Leaders with dreams, or even leaders with more tangible projects, may not initiate an organized movement or substantive change. People will not follow leaders unless they accept the vision or dream as their own. To do so, leaders need to inspire people to share their vision.
A shared vision is as important as modeling the way in the process to utilize and improve social capital. People need to be convinced about the benefits of social capital in academic and disciplinary success in schools. Since many studies (Dika & Singh, 2002) show positive links between high social capital and overall success in K-12 education, making people believe in its benefits may not prove a difficult task for principals and teachers. However, a simple belief does not help much with improving social capital. Kouzes and Posner’s (2007) second practice of exemplary leadership, which is inspire a shared vision, might help leaders, principals and teachers achieve sufficient utilization and improvement in education. The visions and dreams may include (1) high involvement in activities and events, (2) strong connections with parents and community members, and (3) moral and financial support. The first step towards realizing such visions is telling them to the targeted individuals. The second is paralleling the visions with people’s expectations, hopes, and dreams. To do so, principals and teachers should engage in dialogue, not only with their colleagues, but also with parents and community members. The third involves further interaction and dialogue with people to amend or modify the vision for more effective utilization, if needed. Thus, plans and preparations for the planned goal or for the better utilization and improvement of social capital can be improved, and thus become more appealing.
Leadership cases mostly involve a case of change or are perceived to be a challenge to the status quo. Studies done by Kouzes and Posner (2007) confirm this. For example, leaders may challenge a system, its processes or procedures so that they obtain new or better products, processes, services, systems, or outcomes. Challenge might involve an innovative product, a cutting-edge service, a revolutionary piece of legislation, or a reformed cadre of different personnel.
In a school environments, change and challenge occurs in and through the existing policies, internal culture and the status quo. To achieve a significant or better organized transformation, school leaders, primarily principals, happen to take risks. Change might be perceived as a challenge in different forms to the existing attitudes, means, methods and personnel. It might not be seen within the framework or practice of the existing action-plans that allege to benefit social capital within a community. By and large, attempts to improve or further utilize social capital can be perceived as a challenge if there is already some resistance to and confrontation with the rank-and-file towards the process of change and development in any community. As for schools, school leaders can challenge the attitudes and processes that are not effective and valuable for better social capital. Their action plans need to include overall participation, steady attendance, constant involvement, frequent visits and positive relations which would invoke further responses, participation, and contribution from individual families or lager communities. Challenging stagnant, unpromising, unproductive methods, means, or processes with a positive attitude is usually acknowledged as a needed form of action and practice towards achieving objectives.
Leadership is about team work, and cannot be restricted to a small group of loyalists. It must include peers, managers, customers, clients, and citizens – all those who have a stake in the vision. The command-and-control techniques of the Industrial Revolution are no longer applicable. Leaders must work to make people feel strong, capable, and committed. They need to enable others to act and to participate in team efforts in order to accomplish either an organized movement or significant change (Kouzes & Posner, 2007).
Kouzes and Posner’s fourth practice of exemplary leadership is an essential instrument, especially when a single person leads an activity or a project in an organization. This is true for schools principals. At schools, principals give direct orders to realize internal and external procedures. In many cases, teachers, parents, and community members fulfill or complete these orders without becoming a part of them. Teachers, parents, and community members need to be inspired and encouraged to feel like team members who can actively participate in utilizing and improving social capital for their schools. For instance, teachers should be able to contribute to an event organization not only as guests but also as team members who arrange the event. Parents and community members should also be enabled to work as team members working towards improvements or success. Rather than simply participate, they can get involved in the events and organizations, at least to a certain extent, as controllers, coordinators, sponsors, or organizers. This simple involvement naturally attracts and increases the level of interest in school and overall education by society at large, and of course results in the improvement and utilization of social capital accordingly.
Encouraging the heart is another practice of exemplary leadership offered by Kouzes and Posner (2007). It is essential for leaders, because people get exhausted, frustrated, disenchanted, and often temped to give up. Leaders encourage the hearts of their constituents to carry on. Encouragement may come in many forms, ranging from dramatic gestures to simple actions. For instance, in recognition of performance of the constituents, a simply participating in their celebrations encourages people’s hearts. Such simple actions show that their performance is recognized and appreciated by the leader (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). .
Similar to principals, teachers, as leaders, also should encourage the hearts of their students and students’ parents. Teacher-parent contacts, interactions and dialogues should be accommodated between individuals for academic success and educational progress.
As argued, there are several factors that promote academic and disciplinary success in K-12 education. Educators, in most cases, have the initiative and inherent power to utilize and modify these factors. Social capital is one of these factors and has a critical role for the overall success in schools, especially in K-12 education. Statistics and research show positive links between improved social capital and educational success in the US and elsewhere.
Environments with improved social capital have better educational success, whereas low social capital environments have lower educational success, with high dropout rates and lower tests scores. Although studies clearly support the importance of developing social capital, further proposals, action plans, or practices are still needed to improve and utilize the social capital in K12 education. These proposals can be set by specific disciplines and also by interdisciplinary approaches, such as sociology, psychology, and education.
Erkan Acar is a PhD candidate in education at Marywood University, Pennsylvania.


"Make no mistake, the Mon Calamari saved the galaxy."
The Mon Calamari (also known as Calamari, Calamarians, Mon Cal, Mon Calamarians, or rarely Mon Cala) were one of the sentient species indigenous to the world of Dac.
"This ship stinks of fish. Or so I would imagine. The Mon Calamari are such a disgusting species."
On average, a member of the species stood between 1.3 to 1.8 meters tall and also smelled of salt and the sea. They were a fish-like amphibious humanoid species with salmon-colored skin, webbed hands, high-domed heads and huge, fish-like eyes. They were equally capable of breathing both on land and in water with them being at home in either environment. Male Mon Calamari had protrusions on their chin called "barbels" which grew more numerous with age. Most Mon Calamari had salmon-colored skin, often mottled with light and dark patterns, though examples of other skin colors were known. The Mon Calamari are able to descend to depths of up to 30 meters below sea level without requiring breathing or pressure apparatus. Though they can breathe water, they find it somewhat uncomfortable, and use organic gills whenever possible. Mon Calamari could stay underwater for an indefinite period of time, although a frightened Mon Calamari, particularly a juvenile, could drown underwater. They also did not need to decompress when resurfacing. They tended to smell of salt and sea giving them a particular identifiable odor.
Their hands, apart from being webbed, also featured five claw-tipped fingers; one opposable thumb with two more shorter claw-like protrusions, two long middle fingers, and two extremely short outer fingers. As an additional feature, Mon Calamari hands also presented three suction-cup like holes on their palms. Mon Calamari could swivel their eyes independently from one another, focusing on two areas at once. Mon Calamari saw in different wavelengths than Humans, making it difficult for one species to view visuals designed for the other and vice versa. Their eyes were often used to express emotion; staring with the left eye was a way of showing surprise, while staring with the right eye was either a challenge to fight or an expression of love, depending on the circumstances.
Mon Cal Hand Holes
Due to their fish-like appearance, the Mon Calamari were referred to by the somewhat derogatory Deal-slang expression "Mon Cals in a fishbowl", which referred to the act of making several big and easy deals from naive or less-than-intelligent clients.
+2 to Intelligence, +2 to Wisdom, Species Size is Medium, Racial Language is Mon-Calamarian


Johann Flierl was the epitomy of the successful German missionary. From a farm in Bavaria, he trained at Neuendettelsau with an early and strong sense of vocation. He was quick to spot opportunities for strategic development. During his period at Bethesda mission at Killalpaninna (1878-1885) Germany acquired territory in New Guinea, and he immediately proceeded to become the first Lutheran missionary in this new contact zone. Along the way he was briefly delayed at Cooktown and used this time to start another mission at Cape Bedford, which he called Elim. He spent the next 44 years as a missionary in New Guinea (1886-1930) where his four children were born, developing a network of missions, and retired at age 72.
|Rev. Johann Flierl
|Source: M00278, Lutheran Archives Australia
Johann (Hansel) was born on 16 April 1858 at Buchhof (then consisting of three houses) in the Upper Palatine, near Nürnberg. He went to the local public school at Sulzbach for seven years, until age 14. His autobiography gives glimpses into rural village life of thatched roof cottages with open wells presenting dangers. Matchsticks were still a novelty (introduced to Germany in the 1830s), and the family ate from one bowl, using a slice of bread as their plates. Hansel learned knitting from his father, and could finish a sock in a day. Bavaria had been at war with both Prussia and France, and both were equally considered foreign countries until the French defeat and unification of Germany under Prussia in 1871. The railway networks were just getting extended, and for people like Hansel, who could neither ride nor shoot, walking was the mode of transport. Family was the only support network, and after his sister died her widower married another sister in the Flierl family. Superstitions and spiritism – the belief that the devil could manifest himself – suffused the Christian beliefs of the mostly Catholic villagers. Bavaria was not much affected by the ‘Kirchenstreit’ that fragmented Protestants in Prussia. In Sulzbach the Protestants even reached a convivial arrangement with the Catholics, by installing a submergible altar in the Catholic church, which could be hauled up for Protestant services.
Flierl attended the Sunday school of the local Protestant pastor who recommended him for Neuendettelsau
. He first went into apprenticeship with a blacksmith in Nürnberg, but when his father found out that they were made to work on Sundays, he promptly picked his son up again after just three weeks, and tried to place him in the college, where they were told that Johann had to be at least 17 to enter the college. He had to wait four years until he was accepted in 1875. He appears to have had the solid support of his parents in his missionary aspirations, and this gave him a strength of character that made him sometimes difficult to manage by his later employers.
At this time the graduates were sent only to the German communities in Australia and America. It accepted small cohorts every year, so that a strong bond formed between the graduates. The students were encouraged to nurture the link between the institution and its financial supporters by visiting them during the September and March holidays.
A call for missionaries was received from South Australia, and Flierl eagerly volunteered before he had completed even half of his time at the seminary. He completed his three years and was then sent to Australia, destined for Cooper Creek (Bethania).
Flierl’s departure for Australia must have been quite an occasion in the family, and inspired two of his cousins to also enter the seminary. Konrad Flierl, born in 1865 in Sulzbach, was just 13 when his cousin left for Australia, and entered Neuendettelsau the following year in the preparatory course. He spent five and a half years at the seminary and was sent to the USA in 1885.
|The Flierl family home at Buchhof
|Source: Flierl 1999
Cousin Johann Flierl (II), also born in April 1858, had learned farming from age 14 to 17, then completed an apprenticeship in carpentry, then worked in a mine. During the period which Johann (I) spent anxiously waiting for his admission to the seminary, reading only wholesome books, getting tuition from local priests, and often getting teased for his piousness, his cousin Johann (II) caroused in Nürnberg. His first thought of becoming a missionary arose when Johann (I) departed to Australia in 1875. He was accepted into Neuendettelsau in spring 1880, while Konrad was there, and sent to Australia three years later.
He was called as a replacement for his cousin to Cooper Creek in late 1883 and married a girl from Hahndorf. He fell out of favour with the Neuendettelsau and Immanuel Synod circles and left the mission in 1891. By 1908 he was at Buffalo in the USA.
A nephew born in 1884 in Sulzbach was also inspired by the letters from his uncle in New Guinea, and formed the aspiration early on to become a missionary. He attended the Neuendettelsau seminary from 1902 to 1906. Rev. Leonhard Flierl arrived in New Guinea in 1907 and stayed there with his wife Ottilie, who joined him in 1923, until 1929.
To South Australia (1878)
|Rev. Johann Flierl with Johannes Pingilina at Bethesda
|Source: M00278, Lutheran Archives Australia
Flierl was not to see his mother again, who died the year after his departure. He embarked on his first voyage out of Bavaria, out of Germany, out of Europe, together with Brother Friedrich Wilhelm Matschoss, destined for the German congregation at Mt. Gambier, travelling via Hamburg and London, to Melbourne. The passengers had to provide their own mattresses and blankets, but were supplied with a bottle of port wine each week, which however kept them neither warm nor cheerful enough as they sailed south of the equator into the cold latitudes. They transhipped to Adelaide, where Flierl met Heinrich Vogelsang, the son of the Cooper Creek lay-missionary, and went to their host community at Tanunda, where Flierl, Matschoss and teacher C. A. Meyer were ordained in September 1878, age 20. Flierl was accommodated with the Auricht family at Tanunda- Langmeil, and so met Louise Auricht, whom he married four years later, in 1882 when he was 24 and she was 21.
The German Lutheran community in South Australia was now more than 40 years old, and Flierl found them well established, certainly no more backward than the Palatine villages he knew. A mood of revivalism has increased community support for missions and church, but the Lutherans had fractured into two synods, the Immanuel Synod maintaining connection with Neuendettelsau and supporting the Cooper Creek mission (established 1866), and the Australian Synod liaising with Hermannsburg and supporting the Hermannsburg mission (established 1877) .
The Dieri mission later known as Bethesda in the Cooper Creek area, had been set up in 1866 by two Neuendettelsau missionaries, Rev. Johann Friedrich Gößling and Rev. Ernst Homann, supported by the colonists Hermann Vogelsang and Ernst Jakob. It was shifted several times as seasonal lakes dried up and the Dieri adjusted their routes accordingly. Flierl arrived with the Meyers, who shared the mission house with the Vogelsangs. As so often, the laymen turned out to be more persistent than the ordained missionaries.
Flierl was the junior missionary here, accommodated in a single-room cottage and immersed himself into the study of the Dieri language, and prepared a universal reader (with Luther’s cathechism, bible stories, bible verses and hymns), even before the first church was completed in October 1880, at the Lake Killpalaninna site called Bethesda. At around that time he made his first journey back to Adelaide. The railway line was still under construction, so he had to walk 250 miles to catch the train at Beltana to Port Augusta, then the boat to Adelaide, where he arrived ‘looking like a hobo’, with no money, a swag and his toes poking through the boots, at the home of his financee. Later the rail reached Gums-Farina (130 miles) and by 1884 it reached Hergott Springs (70 miles from the mission – ‘Hergott’ meaning ‘the Lord’).
The missionaries had ignored the mission board’s reservations about moving back to Killalpaninna, ignored its instruction to commence wheat growing, and had sent Flierl south without permission. A four-member delegation now came for an inspection, and gave its belated consent for the already completed move to the old Hermannsburg station on Lake Killalpaninna. Flierl had constructed a three-bedroom cottage and obtained permission to return to Adelaide to get married in October 1882. His cousin Johann Flierl (II) was recruited as a replacement.
Setting up Hopevale (1886)
The Dutch had claimed the western part of the island of Papua in 1824. As German trading activities in the area increased, and rumours spread that the Germans planned to annexe the eastern part of the island New Guinea, Queensland annexed the southern part of the island in 1883. Britain refused to legitimise this move, and only when Germany annexed the northeast part of the island and Samoa in November 1884, Britain followed suit a few days later by establishing a protectorate in the southeast. The German ethnogapher and ornithologist Otto Finsch, after whom Finschhafen was named, visited New Guinea in 1884 and 1885, the boundaries between the British and the German areas were agreed in 1885, and in 1886 the German Neuguinea-Kompagnie was issued a trading monopoly and practically put in charge of the administration of the German territory (Kaiser-Wilhelmsland and Bismarck Archipelago).
The Lutherans responded quickly to the new developments. Flierl wrote to Neuendettelsau and the South Australian mission board which employed him requesting to be sent to New Guinea. He received immediate support from Neuendettelsau, which offered to organise finance from Germany. Flierl took his wife home to Tanunda and set off in November 1885, accompanied by Johann Biar from St. Kitts in South Australia.
In Sydney the German Consul General, who was an agent for the Neuguinea-Kompagnie, informed them that permission from company headquarters in Berlin was required, since the only transport to Finschhafen (from Cooktown) was undertaken by the company, who would only carry company officials and employees or specially authorised persons. Undaunted, Flierl appealed to Neuendettelsau and Adelaide for intercession, asked the consul general to become the business agent for the future mission, and proceeded to Cooktown, the new port servicing the Palmer River gold-rush (1873-83).
He settled in for a wait, and tried to make as many acquaintances as possible, including among the numerous Germans who had been attracted by the gold-rush, but who had no interest in forming a congregation. The first company ship to call from New Guinea - which actually got wrecked on Osprey Reef - had orders not to take Flierl on board under any circumstances. For Flierl this was not a setback but ‘a clear pointer from God’.
The unhelpful attitude of the German trading company gave him a couple of months to spend at Cooktown, and he formed the idea that here was a good mission field. Flierl had very clear strategic objectives in mind, since Cooktown was the closest trading post to a future mission in New Guinea. It could be a stepping stone, and also serve as a half-way station and as a recuperation station for staff who needed a spell from the tropical climate. He found out that a large Aboriginal reserve had recently been set aside north of the town at Cape Bedford, about six hours’ walk away. He stepped right into an opportunity waiting to be taken up. The Queensland government promptly agreed to finance such a mission for one year, on the condition that it must be conducted for at least five years, must cultivate crops and seek to become self-supporting. Flierl agreed before inspecting the site. He also asked the Lutheran communities in the Logan area to support the mission.
He started to learn Koko Yimidir in Cooktown, and in January 1886 proceeded to Cape Bedford in a government boat loaded with government provisions, accompanied by Briar, Rev. Martin Doblies, an Aboriginal police officer, and a team of Aboriginal helpers. Police inspector Fitzgerald and the local magistrate Milman, also went for the trip and returned the same day,. He soon found that the reserve land was not suitable for white settlement, or for cultivation. The government also made available the Killarney sailing vessel, which was skippered by Brother Doblies who had maritime experience from his home in the Baltic Sea. They established Elim station with a coconut and maize plantation, although the maize produced little and the melons and pumpkin failed.
Within a few months of their arrival they were visited by the Governor, and it was announced that a second reserve had been set aside on the Bloomfield
River, 45 miles south of Cooktown, which the Queensland government wanted to have run as a mission on the same terms.
Meanwhile the long-awaited consent of the Neuguinea-Kompagnie was obtained through lobbying from Neuendettelsau, and a replacement for Flierl was sent from Bethania. Rev. C. A. Meyer and his wife arrived in June 1886, accompanied by Johannes Pingilina
. Biar, who was supposed to accompany Flierl to New Guinea, stayed at Hopevale for a short period and then went to New Guinea in private employment, whereas Doblies followed Flierl to New Guinea in 1887, however malaria forced him back to Queensland and he joined the Mari Yamba
mission in 1887.
To Papua New Guinea (1886)
In July 1886 Flierl travelled to Finschhafen, the headquarters of the Neuguinea-Kompagnie, where he spent several weeks become acquainted with the newly forming colonial elite under the recently arrived governor Baron von Schleinitz with family including his father-in-law Baron von Hippel. The company officers had only been in the territory for a year: this was virgin land where Flierl’s enterprising spirit could develop to full fruition. His knowledge of Aboriginal languages was no advantage here. No prior work had been done on the local languages, except for a word list of about 100 Jabem words collected by the medical officer at Finschhafen Dr Schellong. Years later they realised that the word for ‘woman’ which they had been using actually only meant ‘tall’. It must have been obtained when someone pointed at a tall woman, asking what’s that, and the answer was ‘auwi palinggo’. Palinggo, instead of auwi was noted down as the word for woman.
After a few weeks Flierl was joined by Rev. Karl Tremel, and they recruited three assistants from George Brown’s Wesleyan Methodist mission in the Bismarck Archipelago (established 1875 with helpers form Fiji and Samoa). They selected a site at Simbang, less than two hours’ walking distance from Finschhafen. Some of the local villagers had themselves been displaced by the colonial occupation of Finschhafen. When they realized that the missionaries had come to stay rather than visit, they tried to drive them away.
|Source: Flierl 1910
Still, the missionaries set about building a school, which took five months, and then awaited the arrival of children, in vain:
Every morning we two missionaries alternated in school duties. We would go into the nearby village and attempt to coax children to our school. Or we would sit on the steps of our school and would try to persuade any children passing along the nearby track to come into the school, with more or less success.
The school finally started when seven young boys presented themselves to make an agreement, that they would stay for seven months, attend school and work in the garden, much like they would sign on for a work contract. After the expiry of their term, they were relived by another group.
From here the mission took off and was eventually able to build outstations, as staff reinforcements arrived. In 1887 Rev. Doblies joined them for a few months, followed by Rev. Georg Bamler (who died in New Guinea in 1928). They established stations on both Tami Islands (1890) and at Deinzerhöhe (named after the Neuendettelsau director Deinzer). A malaria epidemic in Finschhafen in 1891 decimated the company staff and caused the German administration to move its headquarters to Madang in Astrolabe Bay, where the Rhenish Mission society (Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft, Barmen) had commenced its mission in 1887. This gave a strategic advantage to the Rhenish mission, and the Neuendettelsauers responded by establishing a site at Sattelberg as a health retreat, further claiming the Finschhafen area as their territory. In 1895 the Catholic Steyler mission society began a mission at Madang.
In 1899 the first baptisms were performed, after 13 years of work. That year the mission was reinforced with the arrival of Rev. Georg Pfalzer with his wife Mathilde (who both left in 1914), Sister Frieda Götz (who stayed until 1897), and Rev. Konrad Vetter (who died in New Guinea in 1906). Further stations were added in the Huon Gulf, with a supply station at Finschhafen (1903), a coconut plantation at Heldsbach (1904), and outstations Logaweng, Sialum and Wareo. At Heldsbach Flierl built his 12th house.
|First church at Tami Island
|Source: Flierl 1910
In 1908 Flierl went on his first extended furlough. He travelled for two years, visiting Australia, Germany and the USA, and used this occasion to lecture and help increase the financial support for the mission from the USA and Bavaria. Such connections were soon to become even more important, with the outbreak of World War I, which dictated the family’s fortunes.
Flierl’s four children were all born in New Guinea, and all remained firmly connected with missionary activity. Both his sons attended the Neuendettelsau seminary and returned as ordained missionaries. Dora became a mission nurse and teacher, remained unmarried, and looked after her father in old age. Elise married Rev. Dr. Georg Pilhofer, also a Neuendettelsau missionary in New Guinea.
As the Australians were taking command of the German territory in World War I, the German missionaries in New Guinea were required to swear an oath of neutrality. Flierl’s elder son Wilhelm was arrested in 1915 because two fleeing German officials took possession of his boat and left behind a box, so he was accused of assisting the enemy. He was interned at Liverpool (Australia), and repatriated to Germany at the end of the war. He then joined his brother Hans, who had been conscripted into military service on his arrival at Neuendettelsau in 1914, in Texas, and returned to New Guinea with his wife Maria in 1927, not having seen his family for 15 years.
World War I spelt the demise of the German colonial adventure and rendered the connections between Neuendettelsau and the Lutherans in America and Australia all the more important. The Australian Lutherans now took over the direction of the Neuendettelsau missions in New Guinea, and Australian-born Pastor Otto Theile, a Neuendettelsau graduate (1897-1901) became mission director in Brisbane. Under Australian rule the mission effort in New Guinea was reorganised and further extended, the Neuendettelsauers penetrating into the Central Highlands in the 1930s.
At age 72 Flierl left New Guinea for Tanunda, where his wife died in 1934, and in 1937 he returned to Neuendettelsau with Dora. The remainder of the family also returned to Germany under the gathering clouds of another war, only Wilhelm remained in New Guinea and was interned at Tatura (Australia) in 1940, together with other German missionaries including his brother-in-law Georg Pilhofer.
Flierl died on 30 September 1947, age 89. In 1972 Flierl Place in Canberra was named in his honour, the Louise Flierl Mission Museum at Hahndorf, opened in 1998, is named after his wife.
Flierl was an imposing figure, tall, bearded, energetic and with a dry sense of humour. In the establishment of a mission field, he saw himself as ‘the pioneer, the forerunner’, leaving the role of teacher, language expert, and congregational leader to others.
His autobiography suggests that he was the driving force behind the mission extension in the Morobe district. Other accounts, however, lend far more weight to the pivotal role of ‘nationals’, local people without whom the white mission staff could not have succeeded.
|German missionaries from New Guinea as prisoners of war in Australia
'On the left stands missionary Willy Flierl, sitting under the roof is Missionary Raum, both currently pastors in the US, until they are allowed back to New Guinea. In the prisoner camp at Trial Bay in Australia they built this hut on the beach from posts, clay, timber boxes and reeds. Sitting on the right is Pastor Gutekunst, a German-Australian Pastor.'
Source: Koller 1924, p.121.
 Flierl, Johann, My Life and God’s Mission, an autobiography by Senior Johann Flier, Pioneer missionary and field inspector in New Guinea, Lutheran Church of Australia, Adelaide, 1999, pp 9-33.
 Resume of Konrad Flierl, Neuendettelsau, Lebenslaufbuecher: Australien/USA, p.121.
 Resume of Johann Flierl, Neuendettelsau, Lebenslaufbuecher: Australien/USA, p.79.
 Resume of Leonhard Flierl, Neuendettelsau, Lebenslaufbuecher: Australien/USA; and Flierl, Johann, My Life and God’s Mission, an autobiography by Senior Johann Flier, Pioneer missionary and field inspector in New Guinea, Lutheran Church of Australia, Adelaide, 1999, p.253.
 Flierl, Johann, My Life and God’s Mission, an autobiography by Senior Johann Flier, Pioneer missionary and field inspector in New Guinea, Lutheran Church of Australia, Adelaide, 1999, p.112.
 Flierl, Johann, My Life and God’s Mission, an autobiography by Senior Johann Flier, Pioneer missionary and field inspector in New Guinea, Lutheran Church of Australia, Adelaide, 1999, p.138.
Weiss, Peter, Short General and Statistical History of the Australian Lutheran Church, Lutheran Archives Australia, 2001-2007.
 Flierl, Johann, My Life and God’s Mission, an autobiography by Senior Johann Flier, Pioneer missionary and field inspector in New Guinea, Lutheran Church of Australia, Adelaide, 1999, p. 180.
Wagner, Herwig and Hermann Reiner (eds) The Lutheran Church in Papua New Guinea: the first hundred years 1886-1986. Adelaide Lutheran Publishing House 1986.
Flierl, Johann, Dreiβig Jahre Missionsarbeit in Wüsten und Wildnissen, Verlag des Missionshauses Neuendettelsau, 1910.
Koller, Wilhelm, Die Missionsanstalt in Neuendettelsau, ihre Geschichte und das Leben in ihr. Neuendettelsau, Verlag des Missionshauses, 1924.


Written Work by Graham T. Baden
Tradition, Autocracy, and the
Pursuit of Gender Equality in Algeria, 1954—2014
Algeria, a nation of social contrasts and political contradictions, stands out as an enigma in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Since its revolution during the 1950s, resting at the center of a dialectic between “tradition” and “modernity,” Algerian national identity and the women who claim it have had a tumultuous relationship. Veiled and unveiled, in public, schools, and even sports, Algerian women have been important agents of change in Algeria for half a century. Yet, Unicef, Freedom House, Gender Index, the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, et al. still rank women’s rights in Algeria behind most of the world, and even behind other MENA nations like Bahrain, Morocco, and Lebanon. Although Algeria is a land among the highest ranked in Africa for its rate of female education and political participation, and women were essential elements of its drive for independence, Algerian women still struggle against its authoritarian and patriarchal structures of power; however, unlike the prevailing Western narrative of why this might be the case, research suggests this has nothing to do with religious conservatism, but with patriarchal and autocratic nepotism and neoliberalism.
To determine evidence of Algeria’s gendered cognitive dissonance, and to identify potential causes of women’s civil insecurity, this paper will outline three specific areas of women’s rights within Algeria— their political participation and representation within the state, their educational and employment opportunities, and their social rights and liberties. It will relate men and women’s positions in Algeria, taking special interest to highlight the recent waning of civil rights in general and the dislocation of the democratic process that has occurred since the end of their civil war of the 1990s. Finally, it will determine areas of concern and potential threats to the future of gender equality within a region that did not fully participate in the popular unrest of the Arab Spring.
While many colonized territories had begun to achieve sovereignty during the 1950s through non-violent political development, Algeria became the first African land to demand its independence through organized upheaval. The Algerian War, an important expression of African political and social agency, was a turning point for the Francophone world. In 1954, likely inspired by the developments in French Indochina (now Vietnam), the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) developed a strategy of violence and terror to win back the lands of Algeria from the French occupiers who had seized the territory and subjugated its peoples. In the eight dramatic years that followed, the FLN executed a successful guerrilla campaign against the French troops sent to quell the rebellion in rural areas and staged frequent acts of terror within the French Quarter of Algiers. To achieve these ends, the FLN relied heavily on the support and aid of Algerian women, who acted as nurses, messengers, porters, and even bomb planters. These efforts were not rewarded, though, and the region retained a cultural bias against women despite their war-time accomplishments.
Almost immediately after independence, military and bureaucratic elites began to consolidate power and establish patriarchal methods of control within the government. Regardless of their participation in the war, political authority was not shared with women. The FLN, established as the single governmental party, went to work constructing the state of Algeria and founding a new national identity apart from social, ethnic, or religious associations. The Union National des Femmes Algériennes (UNFA), the first official women’s organization in Algeria, founded and funded by the FLN in 1965, was pivotal in mobilizing women to back the new state policies of the sole Algerian party. In spite of these efforts, women fell back into their place of traditional inferiority, and any credibility they had secured during the revolution faded in the new light of state sponsorship.
Notwithstanding the state’s nationalist aspirations, the Algerian population remained divided along idealistic lines. Much of the established authority, belonging to the secularist, West-leaning camp, was criticized for their collusion with the imperialists and former occupiers by a growing conservative and Islamist trend in Algeria. In response to this upwelling, the state formulated the Family Code, a series of regulations based on a conservative reading of Shari’ah law that fundamentally institutionalized the inferiority of women. While their first attempt at implementation in 1981 was met with popular, grassroots resistance among women’s groups and associations, by 1984, after subtle but inconsequential edits to the document, the code was passed with little public debate. Research offers no indication to explain this unfortunate absence of women. Though one might assume this conservative turn of events led to the loss of women’s place in public and their redirection into the private sphere, as was the case in other nations of the Arab World, quite the opposite is true. In fact, women have remained important public agents since then. The code merely codified patriarchal authority over women in Algerian society and ameliorated tensions with the rising Islamic fundamentalism.
The Algerian state continued its efforts to improve its relationship with popular society, and in 1989, in response to increased pressure from international economic partners, it opened up the opportunity for democratic elections and a multi-party system. Soon, nearly sixty political parties had sprung up in Algeria, many regionally, ethnically, and religious based, and the government hosted its first governmental elections in 1991. However, when the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS), a popular Islamist party, gained a majority in the polls, especially in the urbanized areas of the North, the FLN disbanded the election and refused to cede its power. The nation was soon plunged into a civil war between the old, established powers of the revolution and the new, populist Islamic movements that had evolved during the 80s.
The war lasted a decade, and it saw Algeria through some of its worst periods of civil and women’s rights. In 1994, when the military seized control of the government, and fighting between the Islamist parties and the FLN were at their peak, Freedom House ranked Algeria at its lowest ever score. The FIS even declared a fatwa in 1994 authorizing the killing of women seen without a hijab. It should be noted, though, that all factions involved in the strife were accused of war crimes. While the worst atrocities are attributed to Islamist groups, research suggests that nearly 10,000 Algerians “disappeared” at the hands of the FLN. Figures are inconsistent, but it appears between 150,000 and 200,000 Algerians died during the civil war. By far, the worst victims of the fight were ethnic and religious minorities and the women who suffered rape, torture, and forced marriage or impregnation. Despite this, women still organized into associations and formed support groups for women. The Collective against Denigration and for the Rights of Algerian Women (RACHDA), an NGO formed in 1996, is one shining example. In spite of the increased violence from both sides of the conflict, women staged protests and demonstrations against the patriarchy of the period.
Granting its decade of military chauvinism, the Algerian government appears to have pursued popular representation, and it steadily changed its practices towards democratization and gender equality. In 1996, Algeria officially established a second house of parliament, one that was to be elected, rather than appointed, and any new parties that were not determined by specific regional or religious biases could run for seats. One important change for women was their right to self-representation. Though they had held the right to vote since 1962, it wasn’t until 1997 that the patriarchal family-head lost his ability to vote for all members of the household. Further, by 2011, through a quota amended to the constitution, women were ensured at least a third of the seats in the lower house—the highest rate in the Arab World. As well, a UN report in 2008 found that 800 judges— almost half the judiciary— and nearly a third of all lawyers in the Algeria to be women.
Although these seem to have been positive movements, the single greatest political change for women since the Millennium has been the relaxation of the Family Code. In 2005, the Algerian government officially revised the code, removing clauses that discriminate against women directly. The new revisions gave women greater freedom of movement without patriarchal authorization, increased divorce rights and opportunities, and it removed the specific regulation requiring women’s obedience. The phrase “the duty of the wife is to obey the husband” was removed from the Family Code, and women saw their first signs of legal equality in twenty years.
To further confuse this gender dialectic, Algeria has one of the highest-ranked ratios in the Arab World of women to men enrolled in all levels of education. Girls and boys are represented roughly equally in elementary school, with 93 and 95 percent enrolling and graduating respectively. Yet, by secondary school, enrollment rates for males have already been overtaken by a few percent. In tertiary education, the ratio gap is even wider. Gross college enrolment is higher for women than men (36 to 25 percent), and women outrank men in graduation rates by nearly two to one. However, despite this relative overrepresentation in education, women are still severely underrepresented within the economic sphere. Women’s participation in the economy is merely 39 percent, and they make up only 17 percent of the total work force. That said, these figures may be skewed by an uncounted percentage of women working from the home or in unregulated trades like the marketplace. It is interesting to note, however, that women are rapidly joining the higher echelons of employment. Due to their college educations, many women are turning to medical, educational, judicial, and governmental fields. Despite this, studies of women in Algeria find that women still feel prevented from entering the workforce due to the social constraints of domesticity and the threat of sexual harassment.
In fact, while sexual harassment has been criminalized since a 2008 amendment to the constitution, even requiring jail time for offenders, it remains a valid constraint to women’s employment because harassment is defined only as an abuse of authority in the workplace. As well, while Unicef finds that women’s health, pre- and post-natal care, and rate of contraceptive use is increasing—even in the poorest 50 percent of the population—gross population figures are misleading because rural areas are both under-covered by facilities and under-represented by the surveys. Further, sexual violence is criminalized, can lead to two years in prison for offenders, and in 1998, women who had been rape victims of the civil war were given the right to abort their pregnancies by a fatwa of the Supreme Islamic Council in Algeria. However, sexual violence remains defined as an hatk al-’ardh, “attack of the honor,” instead of the French word viol for rape. Thus, it is considered an attack on the honor of the woman’s family, and if the offender marries the victim, he may “expunge” her families honor and will not go to trial.
Scholars are skeptical of what has appeared to be an increase of women’s rights, though. For while women are overrepresented in colleges, equally represented in judicial affairs, and occupy at least a third of the seats in parliament, they are severely underrepresented in the economy and restricted from participation in actual political development. In spite of this increased representation of women in politics, instead of improving the lives of women in Algeria, Dilshod Achilov, a professor of political science at East Tennesee State University, suggests, “the government will empower and support those women who do not (and will not) challenge the current political system and/or current regime.” Boutheina Cheriet, a professor at the University of Algiers, goes further, and states that women are “expected to endorse a weak and inadequate status as citizens by accepting their effacement from major decision-making processes, especially those pertaining to personal status and family legislation.”
Arab Spring sans Algeria
So why this disconnect between the governing elite and the populace of Algeria? Though it seems the government has fostered methods of popular representation since the mid-90s, despite the nation’s history of rebellion, the people of Algeria have not responded as many regions of the Middle East have and did not widely participate in the “Arab Spring.” Even as the Algerian government revised the Family Code in 2005, and offered what appears to be efforts of democratization and modernization, Algeria has not seen the development of uprisings as in its neighbors Tunisia or Egypt. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s regime even lifted a nineteen-year-old state of emergency, enacted in 1992 to give the government extensive powers in the interest of fighting terrorism, but the few urban protests against government corruption in 2011 were short lived and had little effect.
Journalists have suggested this might be attributed to the people of Algeria’s fear of becoming embroiled in another conflict like their decade-long civil war of the 90s. Perhaps, more convincingly, this is due to the increased restrictions of Algerian civil rights that have occurred since September 11th, 2001 and the rise of the global “war on terror.” It seems, since their civil war ended, Algerian civil rights have been consistently constricted. Human Rights Watch reports an increase in state regulation on the freedoms of assembly and association, arrests and incarceration of union members and community organizers, and careful controls of the media. The state fines and imprisons journalists for any work that “may harm the national interest.” The fundamental Algerian rights of assembly, association, and speech are fading quickly, and the limited protests that occurred in Algeria between 2010 and 2012 were suppressed by police and its organizers were arrested without hesitation.
Further, Bouteflika, who was elected in 1999, and saw the ending of the civil war in 2002, has since overseen constitutional amendments to remove limits on presidential terms. He was elected to his third term in 2009, is now the longest-serving president in Algerian history, and has actively pursued the establishment of elaborate and nepotistic networks of power behind the scenes of surface-level Algerian policy—what some have termed “the deep state.” The real power in Algeria, though, one that has maintained its authority since the revolution, is “le pouvoir.” This ruling elite, preserving power through the manipulation of wealth from the land’s surplus of hydrocarbons, has ensured a further centralization of authority despite the political articulations of the military, Islamists, or the population.
In fact, many accuse the government for their collusion with elite circles in the economy, military, and Islamists. The Peace and Reconciliation Accord, passed by a referendum in 2005, offered amnesty to war criminals, literally criminalizing investigations of war crimes that occurred during the civil war. Many, from the groups most hurt during the civil war—ethnic minorities and women—suggest this only lead to alliances between corrupt military generals, jihadists, and political elites. Their resistance to transparency, and the behind-closed-doors negotiations with corrupt oil industries like Sonatech, who avoided trial for corruption in 2010, have led to a mistrust of the government and a disdain for the state. One need only look at the 2012 parliamentary elections, where more than half the eligible voters abstained from the vote, to see what little faith the population has in the government.
The Algerian regime retains but a fragile legitimacy, standing atop a delicate balance between secular Arabs, ethnic minorities, and Islamists. Despite surface-level reforms that have offered a ruse of political development, corruption, the oppression of civil liberties, and the lack of any real political competition or representation have tarnished any progressive actions the Bouteflika regime has proposed. Further, the regime’s coopting of moderate Islamists, hidden political manipulations, and the push for a nationalist, rather than ethnic or religious identity, has ossified cultural divisions, fractured any opposition, and left many Algerians with feelings of alienation and betrayal.
The patriarchal turn of events in the sixty years since Algerian independence, alongside the questionable practices and human rights violations of the FLN during the civil war, seems to indicate that the government of Algeria is not so different from the French occupiers they had replaced. Some have even suggested that the women of Algeria were “re-colonized” by Algerian men directly after independence. Mounira Charrad, a Tunisian-born professor at University of Texas and a researcher of women’s issues in the Maghreb, told Africa Renewal that while the law has become easier to change, “what the law does not change is the social situation.”
Is this the case, though, or can it be argued that while the political authority of Algeria’s elite rests solely within male reach, both men and women have had their rights and civil liberties stripped from them, especially since the Millennium? While men and women are still not “equal” in the eyes of Algerian society or politics, both have been hindered by the authoritarian, single-party government and suffered the loss of free expression, press, and association since the end of the civil war. As Abdelkader Cheref, author and professor at Potsdam State University, New York, states, “power has never been in the hands of the people but in the hands of a powerful and hegemonic nomenklatura.” Like any autocracy, it seems those who reside within the palaces of the oligarchy are less interested in race, religion, or gender identities than they are in the mechanisms of power and in the ways of acquiring more of it.
Special thanks to Dr. Houri Berberian
Download a copy of the Presentation Below:
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Bennoune, Karima. “Algeria— Women’s Human Rights Under Siege,” Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Dossier 18, 1997. Accessed October 10, 2014. http://www.wluml.org/node/295.
Cheref, Abdelkader. “Engendering or Endangering Politics in Algeria? Salima Ghezali, Louisa Hanoune and Khalida Massaoudi.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 2, no. 2 (2006): 60-85. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/MEW.2006.2.2.60.
Cheriet, Boutheina. “Gender, Civil Society and Citizenship in Algeria.” Middle East Report, no. 198, “Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East” (1996): 22-26.
Clancy-Smith, Julia and Charles D. Smith. The Modern Middle East and North Africa: A History in Documents.
Dassa Kaye, Dalia, Frederic Wehrey, Audra K. Grant, and Dale Stahl. More Freedom, Less Terror? Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2008.
Gray, Doris H. “Women in Algeria Today and the Debate over Family Law.” Middle East Review of International Affairs 13, no. 1 (March 2009): 45-56.
Lazreg, Marnia. “Gender and Politics in Algeria: Unraveling the Religious Paradigm.” Signs, 15, no. 4 (1990): 755-780. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3174641.
Marzouki, Nadia. “Algeria.” In Women’s Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Progress Amid Resistance, edited by Sanda Kelly and Julia Breslin. New York, NY Freedom House; Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.
Slymovics, Susan. “Algeria—The Women’s Movement.” Middle East Report and Mongabay.com, December, 1993. Accessed November 1, 2014. http://www.mongabay.com/history/algeria/algeria-the_women’s_movement.html
Turshen, Meredeth. “Algerian Women in the Liberation Struggle and the Civil War: From Active Participants to Passive Victims?” Social Research, Vol. 69, No. 3, “The Status of Women in the Developing World” (2002): 889-911. Accessed October 10, 2014, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40971577.
 Abdelkader Cheref, “Engendering or Endangering Politics in Algeria? Salima Ghezali, Louisa Hanoune and Khalida Massaoudi,” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 2, no. 2 (2006): 65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/MEW.2006.2.2.60
 Nadia Marzouki, “Algeria,” chapter in Women’s Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Progress Amid Resistance, Sanda Kelly and Julia Breslin eds. (New York, NY Freedom House; Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010), 1.
 Dalia Dassa Kaye et al., More Freedom, Less Terror? (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2008), 124.
 Ibid, 126.
 Meredeth Turshen, “Algerian Women in the Liberation Struggle and the Civil War: From Active Participants to Passive Victims?” Social Research, 69, no. 3, “The Status of Women in the Developing World” (2002), 898.
 Dassa Kaye, 126.
 Caroline Rohloff, “Reality and Representation of Algerian Women: The Complex Dynamic of Heroines and Repressed Women” (Honors Projects, French and Francophone Studies, Paper 6; Illinois Wesleyan University
Digital Commons @ IWU, 2012), 23. http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/french_honproj/6.
 Dassa Kaye, 126.
 Cheref, 66.
 Palash Ghosh, “Women in Algeria: Progress and Paradox,” International Business Times, October 26, 2012, accessed December 15, 2014. http://www.ibtimes.com/women-algeria-progress-paradox-853988.
 Mary Kimani, “Women in North Africa Secure More Rights,” UN Africa Renewal (July 2008), 8. http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/july-2008/women-north-africa-secure-more-rights.
 Doris H. Gray, “Women in Algeria Today and the Debate over Family Law”, Middle East Review of International Affairs, 13, no. 1 (March 2009): 49.
 Unicef, “ALGERIA: MENA Gender Equality Profile; Status of Girls and Women in the
Middle East and North Africa,” Unite for Children (2011). http://www.unicef.org/gender/files/Algeria-Gender-Eqaulity-Profile-2011.pdf. Accessed, December 12, 2014.
 World Bank, “Algeria,” in The Status of Women in the Middle East and North Africa (2006). http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTMENA/Resources/MENA_Gender_BW2007-3.pdf. Accessed December 12, 2014.
 Unicef and World Bank.
 Rohloff, 28.
 Unicef, 4.
 Mary Kimani, “Women in North Africa Secure More Rights,” UN Africa Renewal Online (July 2008): 8. http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/july-2008/women-north-africa-secure-more-rights.
 Social Institutions & Gender Index.
 Boutheina Cheriet, “Gender, Civil Society and Citizenship in Algeria,” Middle East Report, no. 198, “Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East” (1996), 25.
 Social Institutions & Gender Index.
 Human Rights Watch, “Algeria, World Report 2014,” hrw.org, accessed December 15, 2014, http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/algeria?page=1.
 Human Rights Watch.
 “Algeria: Stop Suppressing Protests,” Human Rights Watch, May 3, 2010, accessed December 15, 2014. http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/05/03/algeria-stop-suppressing-protests.
 Isabelle Werenfels, “Who is in Charge? Algerian Power Structures and their Resilience to Change” (Paris, Sciences Po – C.E.R.I University, 2010), 2. http://www.swp-berlin.org/fileadmin/contents/products/fachpublikationen/wrf_algerien_1002_ks.pdf.
 Ibid, 3.
 Marzouki, 3.
 Dassa Kaye, 135.
 Werenfels, 3.
 Palash Ghosh, “Algerian Parliamentary Election Marred by Voter Apathy, Despite Promises of Fairness, Transparency,” International Business Times, May 10, 2012, accessed December 15, 2014. http://www.ibtimes.com/algerian-parliamentary-election-marred-voter-apathy-despite-promises-fairness-transparency-697793.
 Kimani, 8.
 Cheref, 65.


Laying the tracks
In 1863, the Metropolitan Railway opened between what’s now Paddington and Farringdon. It was the first railway to operate underground and formed the start of what has become a network of 11 train lines and a world-famous public transportation system, copied the world over. The first line that is recognisable today, the Circle Line, opened in 1884, followed by the Central Line in 1900 (author Mark Twain was on the inaugural journey).
Over the next 20 years, the engineers got busy. Versions of the rest of today’s modern lines opened, including the Piccadilly and the Bakerloo (which ran from Baker Street to Waterloo) in 1906. London was also the first city to have electric underground trains from as early as 1905. The escalators we all know and love started to go in from 1911 – starting at Earl’s Court and each line has been extended over the last century as London has expanded.
The iconic Tube map was first unveiled in 1933. Designed by Harry Beck, it was the first of its kind – a schematic map that ditched geographical accuracy to show connections and fare zones instead. It’s often held up as an icon of great design.
The Underground during the war
During World War II the Underground was turned into a city wide network of air-raid shelters. It even hosted secret factories making airplane parts and munitions. Concerts, tea-stands and hair salons all took over stations underground in the early 1940s as London went through the Blitz.
After the war
Post-war not all the stations were opened up again for normal service to resume, some have remained ‘ghost’ stations like Aldywych, time capsules of a train line from the past. But by the 1960s the Tube was ready to expand once more. 1968 saw a big shake up to the Underground with the introduction of a new line – the Victoria line. It was followed 11 years later by the Jubilee line (named for Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee). The phrase ‘Mind the Gap’, now synonymous with travelling on the Tube, has been helping passengers since 1969. The Tube hasn’t been without accidents over the last 60 years – there was a huge crash at Moorgate in 1975 which claimed a huge number of lives and the Kings Cross fire in 1987 was one of the worst in the Underground’s history.
The Underground in the 21st century
As London grows and evolves, so does our ever busier Tube system. This century has seen some pretty big changes in how travellers use the Tube. The Oyster card was introduced back in 2003, the same year TFL legalised busking at stations (in designated areas). Oyster cards have obviously been overtaken with contactless payments in the last couple of years and the controversial shutting down of the ticket windows on stations is still a sore subject.
But it’s not just about technological updates, the last 17 years of the Underground have seen it get even bigger with the introduction of the Overground (possibly confusing some tourists) otherwise known as the ‘ginger line’. Linking in much of East London for the first time in years, the Overground has been instrumental in the gentrification of the east of the city – recognised by the rezoning of places like Stratford to zone 2 in 2015.
In 2016, the Tube finally joined other metropolises in running 24 hours a day (at weekends) on some of its busiest weekend lines. But of course, the Underground’s work is never done. The Northern Line is being extended and Crossrail is imminent. What else will the next 150 years bring?


Women air pilots -- France
French pioneering pilot Marcelle Choisnet-Gohard, pictured here in a flight suit getting into a small plane, was an international glider champion. A paper attached to the bottom of the picture has a description typed in French.
Original Source Unknown
IWASM Original Photo Collection, International Women's Air and Space Museum
ca. January 1978
Heidi Fearing/Kimberly Cole
Online access is provided for research purposes only. For rights and reproduction requests contact the International Women's Air & Space Museum at firstname.lastname@example.org
Original Photo No. 77
Original Source Unknown, “Marcelle Choisret-Gohard,” International Women's Air & Space Museum, accessed November 14, 2018, https://iwasm.omeka.net/items/show/1536.


Cahal Pech Ruins
Less than a 10-minute drive or a 25-minute uphill walk from the town of San Ignacio, the 2-acre Mayan ruin site called Cahal Pech makes for pleasant morning or afternoon trip.
Archaeologists first discovered the site in the 1950s but excavation didn’t begin until 1988. Researchers believe that the site was occupied from 1200 B.C. to 900 A.D. The first settlers to Cahal Pech lived in simple thatch roofed houses overlooking the valley and jungle. Taking advantage of the rich soil above the Upper Belize River, these settlers survived off a variety of sustenance crops including corn, beans, chili, and squash.
From 900-300 B.C. communications with neighboring Maya led to an expansion of the community, and a number of new structures were built for ritual use and special ceremonies. In addition, new ceramic art forms were produced, and by 300 A.D., Cahal Pech had flourished into one of the primary trading centers in the region for ceramics, as well as cacao.
In the height of its occupation, between 10,000 and 20,000 people lived at Cahal Pech, and most of the population were farmers living on the periphery, with a small number of elites living in the center of the community. A majority of the large temples and palaces that are visible today were built between 600 and 800 A.D.
Today the site contains 7 Mayan temples and 34 structures, including residential buildings and two ball courts. The limestone block architecture of the pyramids is similar to other sites in region, and the tallest temple is 77-feet (24-m) high. Hundreds of hand-modeled figurines, nine stelae and one altar have been discovered at the site. The site has a modest museum that provides detailed information on the ruins, with artifacts on display.
The name Cahal Pech (“Place of Ticks”) was derived shortly after its discovery when the land was used as cattle pasture, and thus a haven for ticks. Today the grounds are well maintained, but visitors should still bring insect repellent.
- Other Attractions


ISLAMIC PRINCIPLES AND LEGAL REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO INHERITANCE
ISLAMIC PRINCIPLES AND LEGAL REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO INHERITANCE
IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE ALL COMPASSIONATE THE MOST MERCIFUL “From
What is left by parents and those nearest related – there is a share for men and a share for women. – Whether the property be large or small. A share made FARDH (COMPULSORY)”. (Qur’an: Surah 4, Verse 7). .
This verse lays down the general principles of the Islamic Law of Succession and makes mention of three pertinent facts.
1) “Those nearest related” The criteria for determining the legal heirs and their proportionate shares are based on the law of “proximity of relation” to the deceased. This proximity is also determined by Allah and is not left to the fallible and subjective discretion of man. The Holy Qur’an states: “Between your fathers and sons, you do not know which of them is nearer to you in benefit. Allah is undoubtedly Most Knowledgeable and Most Wise” (SOrah 4, Verse 11) Allah has accordingly specified the shares of beneficiaries based on the law of proximity of relationship and not on the material needs of the beneficiaries. Financial needs are relative. A rich person may become poor, he could become incapacitated or terminally ill and likewise a poor person may become rich overnight.
2) “A share for men and a share for women” During the days of “Jahilliyah” (pre-Islamic ignorance) only those who could fight and defend the family name were entitled to inherit. Women and children were thus naturally excluded from the estate. Even in contemporary law the “freedom of testation” allows an individual to beneficiate whoever he so wishes. Women are therefore not guaranteed a share from the estate. Islam, however guarantees the right of both women and children to inherit from the estate. The protagonist of “reform” claim that Islam denies women their fair share of inheritance. They say that since she generally inherits less than her male counterpart she is denied equitable and fair treatment. This call for “abstract” justice may seem justified if the laws of inheritance are not studied within the broader context of the social value system of Islam.
In Islam, a woman retains total ownership of her property after marriage. Any income derived from her assets remains exclusively hers. She is not obliged to maintain herself or her family even if she is wealthy. In contrast to these privileges a male has to maintain:
a) Himself b) His parents c) His wife and children d) His poor relatives. Considering these social responsibilities, it could be said that in real terms, a female, in fact, inherits more than a male, e.g. a hundred rands that a male inherits may have to be spent on five members of the family whilst the fifty rands a female inherits is over and above the maintenance she receives from her male guardian.
3) “A share made compulsory” The Qur’an has fixed the shares of each individual. These cannot be altered or changed by man. The shares of the heirs as determined by the Qur’an are binding just as the numbers of rakats are binding in salat. Some common errors
1 ) A daughter is given a substantial gift at the time of nikah and is then excluded from the estate. 2) A testator sometimes stipulates that all his assets go to his wife and after her demise to their children. 3) A father may leave his business to a particular son who works with him in the business and thereby excludes the others.
4) Parents for various reasons disown a particular son or daughter and thus exclude him/her from the will.
5) A testator determines his heirs and their respective shares according to his discretion and not in accordance with the injunctions of the Qur’an. A gift during your lifetime A parent may for a valid reason (e.g. service to parents) during his lifetime donate a particular asset to one of his children provided that the purpose of the gift is not to cause harm to the remaining heirs. Observing equality in parental gifts or grants to children is preferable but not binding. If the parent elects to divide his estate in his lifetime solely to avoid a dispute between his heirs after his death, then the lifetime transfers, will be regarded as gifts or grants, in which case he should preferably observe equality. The administration of the estate The estate of the deceased must be strictly administered in the following order:
1) Payment of burial expenses. 2) Payment of debts. 3) Payment of legacies and bequeathed religious obligations up to a maximum of one third of the remaining estate. . 4) Distribution to legal heirs according to the laws of the shariah. Payment of debts and religious obligations Nabi _ has said: “It does not befit a believer who is (obliged) to make a wasiyyah to spend (even) two nights without making a record thereof.” (Bukhari – Muslim) A Muslim is obliged to keep a record of, and declare the following:
1 ) Creditors. 2) Amanah (Items entrusted to him for safe-keeping). 3) Unfulfilled religious obligations. 4) Debtors. NOTE: This is a day to day document that has to be updated on a regular basis and does not form part of the will. See attached schedules. Legacies A testator also has the option of bequeathing a maximum of one third of his estate to persons who are not his heirs. However, if a bequest is made to an heir, it will be subject to the approval of the remaining heirs. Matrimonial regime Islamic marriages are governed by an antenuptial contract. Marriage in community of property is not consistent with the Islamic Law of Inheritance. Those married in community of property will have to change their matrimonial regime to facilitate an Islamic distribution of their estates. Annuities and Life Policies The aggregate amount of premiums paid will form part of the estate. The balance represented by the difference between the proceeds of the policy/ies and the total premium paid must be given to charity, without the intention of reward as a compulsory distribution of an unlawful gain. The consequences of a wrong will Nab! _ has said: IIA man or woman may devoutly obey Allah for sixty years. Yet when death approaches them, they act wrongfully (when making) their will, as a result the fire becomes binding for them.” (Ahmad) May Allah grant us the strength and courage to be submissive to His Word at all times. (Amin) Payment of burial expenses Funeral expenses include cost of kafn, grave and all expenses directly related to the burial. It excludes feeding guests attending the funeral. LEGAL REQUIREMENTS Execution of Wills The execution of Wills is governed by the Wills Act 7 of 1953, as amended. It must be signed by the testator/testatrix. The testator/testatrix should sign the Will with his/her usual signature. Such signature must be made by the testator/testatrix in the presence of two or more competent witnesses present at the same time. Such witnesses must attest and sign the Will in the presence of the testator/testatrix and of each other. If the Will consists of more than one page, each page other than the page on which it ends, must also be SIGNED by the testator/testatrix and by such witnesses. Every page of the Will must be signed by the testator/testatrix as well as the same witnesses who attest at the end of the Will all being present. If the Will is signed by the testator/testatrix by the making of a mark, a magistrate, justice of the peace, commissioner of oaths or notary public must certify at the end thereof that he/she has satisfied himself/herself as to the identity of the testator/testatrix and that the Will so signed is the Will of the testator/testatrix; if the Will consists of more than one page, each page other than the page on which it ends must also be signed by the magistrate, justice of the peace, commissioner of oaths or notary public who so certifies. The Act does, however, prescribe that the certificate is to be at the end of the Will. It is suggested that the certificate be placed as close as possible to the testator’s/testatrix’s mark on the last page. Capacity to make a Will Any person of the age of 16 years or over may make a Will. Witnessing a Will Every person who is over the age of 14 years is competent to witness a Will. A witness cannot sign by making a mark. NO BENEFICIARY MA Y SIGN AS A WITNESS. Capacity to benefit under a Will All persons including corporate bodies may benefit under a Will. The following persons are, however, disqualified from taking benefits: A person who has unduly influenced the testator/testatrix to give him/her a benefit under the Will. A person who has written the Will on behalf of the testator/testatrix cannot take a benefit under such a Will. Such a person cannot be appointed as Executor under the Will written by him/her. A person who witnesses a Will or a person who was his/her spouse at the time of attestation cannot take a benefit under such a Will.


Description This image taken from space is part of a collection of more than 400 amazing satellite pictures provided by Spot Image. Laguna San Rafael National Park is a park located on the Pacific coast of southern Chile. The park is named for the San Rafael Lagoon formed by the retreat of the San Rafael Glacier. Created in 1959, it includes the Northern Patagonian Ice Field. A fjord more than 10 miles long is one of the park's principle attractions.
Astrium Geo, Toulouse Member Since January 2009 Artist StatementAsk us for the Earth
Astrium-GEO handles the world-wide distribution of geographical information products and services using data from Earth observation satellites (optical or radar) ranging from low to very high resolution: Spot 4 and 5, Kompsat-2, Formosat-2, as well as TerraSAR-X, ENVISAT/ERS, LANDSAT-7, etc.