Imagining a new political space: the power of youth and peaceful protest in Algeria

On 16 February 2019 in Kherata, in the east of Algeria, protest marches were organised following the unconstitutional decision by Abdelaziz Bouteflika to stand once again for a fifth presidential mandate. As momentum built, on Friday 22 February hundreds of thousands descended on the streets. Algerians marched in all cities, including the capital Algiers, where protests had been banned since 2001. At the symbolic central post office in Algiers, and in public squares across the country, young people, women, children and men gathered peacefully, simultaneously reclaiming these spaces and breaking the wall of fear in a phenomenal display of civic engagement