The Algerian Hirak: Civil Society and the Role of Artists in a Civic Space Under Pressure

Abstract

This article is about artists as actors of change and culture as a domain and instrument to enhance civic space. From February 2019, for more than a year, hundreds of thousands of Algerians demonstrated every week all over the country peacefully for political reform. The social and political pressure of the Hirak (Arabic for movement) prevented president Bouteflika from running a fifth term. Many artists not only expressed their support to the aims of the Hirak, but contributed actively to it with their songs, poems, pictures and other forms of creativity.