The Discursive Representation and the Status of Women in the Algerian Family Code (2005) in relation to Marriage and its Dissolution FCDA Approach

Abstract

Family issues in relation to marriage and its dissolution are regulated by various family laws. As far as Algeria is concerned, in the last decade, there have been noticeable reforms in the Algerian Family Code. The new amendments are said to affect the struggle between women and the government to improve their rights in the institution of marriage and its dissolution. In this regard, the present research analyzes the discursive representation of women in the Algerian Family Code of 2005. To investigate the issue under scrutiny, the current study applies the theory of feminist critical discourse analysis (henceforth FCDA) to legal discourse in an effort to shed light on the way women are discursively represented in the New Algerian Family Code (NAFC). For this particular purpose, the aforementioned legal discourse is linguistically examined following an FCDA framework with a special emphasis on Van Leewen’s Socio-Semantic(2008) and Van Dijk(2004) models of analysis This interdisciplinary approach is used to explore how power, dominance bias, and ideologies are maintained in the New Algerian Family Code .The results of this study reveal that the target code does maintain and still perpetuates women’s inferior position. In a nutshell, this research indicates that gender bias and asymmetrical power relations between women and men are enacted in the discourse under investigation.