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Zohra, 52, is a cleaner for a private company in Boumerdes, a city 45 km east of Algiers, the capital. Her ordeal began in the early 2000s when she left home with her children and decided to divorce her husband, a man who had abandoned their marital life. Initially, Zohra stayed with a relative, who pressured her to return to her husband and “not destroy her family.” After a few weeks, her coworkers offered her a one-room apartment that was “hardly decent” and vulnerable to the elements, but within her budget.
Zohra chose to face her fate rather than return to the family home, located in the countryside in another wilaya, Médéa, where her family is better off. “But at my parents’ house, my brothers cannot meet my needs or those of my children. They’re busy providing for their own families and can’t take care of everyone. Besides, there aren’t the same job opportunities like in the city. In my native village, women don’t have the same freedom of movement, nor equal opportunities in the world of work,” she explains to Medfeminiswiya.
During her search for housing, Zohra noticed that many real estate agents were reluctant to rent to a woman, even one with children. “They say they don’t want any trouble, as if we women are looking for problems,” she laments.
After two decades of instability and frequent moves, Zohra was finally able, with the help of a businessman, to buy a small, decent house near her workplace, where she currently lives with her three children.
In the past, Zohra filed a complaint against her ex-husband, who refused to pay child support and housing assistance. He simply left his wife and children to fend for themselves. But when she won her case in court, Zohra and her eldest son refused to enforce the court’s decision, which sentenced her ex-husband to three years in prison and heavy fines. She believes that “one cannot send the father of one’s children to prison.”
Unlike Zohra, other women prefer to return to their parents’ homes, because living alone represents a form of autonomy and freedom that conservative Algerian families are not yet ready to accept. For them, returning to the parental home is the “natural” and “common” option. This is why there is no debate within society and why this reality remains “too sensitive” to be addressed in the media, observes an Algerian sociologist who prefers to remain anonymous.
Returning to the parental home
Soumia is 26 years old and lives in a village in Médéa, in the Algerian highlands south of the capital. She is the mother of two young daughters. After an unwanted divorce, she returned to her parents’ home. For her, her family, and the entire village, “It is simply unthinkable for a woman to be living alone.” Neither tradition nor her financial circumstances allow her to take that step.
“Where we come from, a woman leaves her parental home for her husband’s home and vice versa… women cannot live alone! Away from their parents and brothers. There’s no question of opening up this debate,” she says.
Once she returned, her parents dedicated a space to her: a spacious, well-equipped room, for her and her two daughters.
Soumia has never seen her mother or her grandmother live alone. “Why would I?” she asks. She decided to return to the life of her ancestors; in fact, even before getting married, she had dropped out of school at a very young age, and later never considered learning a trade. Today, she finds herself without income and completely financially dependent on her father and brothers, who provide for her needs and those of her two young daughters, the youngest of whom has never met her father.
On the other hand, Soumia finds her family’s attitude and behavior toward her at the end of her marriage unfair. “It’s like they blame me for my divorce. But I did everything I could to avoid going back to my parents’ house. Unfortunately, a divorced woman becomes a burden, a very heavy one, for her family, not only financially but also socially. A divorced woman loses her value. It’s almost like she becomes a disgrace.” She adds, “She absolutely cannot live alone, because a woman without a man is a woman without protection. She is easy prey in our society.”
By contrast, women who have the option of living alone, away from the parental home, don’t seem particularly satisfied with the experience of sharing housing with other women.
“Unfortunately, a divorced woman becomes a burden, a very heavy one, for her family, not only financially but also socially. A divorced woman loses her value. It’s almost like she becomes a disgrace.”
Shared housing: Abuses by landlords and tenants
Yakout, 30, is a divorced woman and the mother of a teenage boy. She commutes between her village and Algiers, 140 km away. In the capital, she has tried living in a shared apartment with other women. Lacking the financial means, she has found herself forced to share a room with two, three, sometimes even four women, in an apartment housing as many as 15 women, at a price ranging from approximately 12,000 to 17,000 Algerian dinars (about 50 euros) in the city center.
Since 2020, she has lived in seven different shared apartments, without her son, who lives with his grandfather. “Women’s shared apartments don’t accept mothers with their children,” she explains to Medfeminiswiya.
After her divorce, her well-off father built her a house near his own, but she wanted to buy an apartment downtown, close to her work. Her father and extended family oppose the idea of her living alone, far from home. She hasn’t given up hope and intends to make this dream a reality one day.
In the meantime, she has to deal with the daily hassles of shared housing: lack of privacy, noise at night, and the theft of valuables or food.
As for those who manage the shared apartments, they are often the first tenants, who negotiate with the landlord to sublet the apartment to other women. “They’re generally bossy, very bossy even,” Yakout says. “They demand that you return by a specific time in the evening, they force you to do the cleaning, the dishes, take out the trash, and sometimes they speak to you rudely. I’ve witnessed some very shocking situations where you’re asked to leave the apartment, at night and without any warning.”
Based on her extensive experience with shared housing in Algiers, Yakout sums it up: “It’s a temporary solution, but it’s not pleasant.”
The real estate market, shaped by social norms
Landlords and real estate agents alike are hesitant when it comes to female tenants. It doesn’t matter whether they’re single, divorced, or widowed, and whether or not they have children.
Many openly state their refusal to house women. Their listings often include requirements such as: “Important: Rental reserved exclusively for respectable families (family record book required).”
And for those who accept single women, a requirement of “respectability” is often mentioned.
On ads for shared housing for women and girls, generally posted by women themselves, it’s very common to find moral clauses. For example, one social media ad reads: “My Residence is shared housing for working women, offering a respectful and family-oriented environment, governed by strict moral standards. All respectable women are welcome.”
These standards also apply to tourists. Real estate employees justify this attitude by citing respect for societal conservatism. “We prefer to rent to families rather than single women or single men. We do this to avoid problems; we’ve encountered a lot of problems in the past,” the manager of a real estate agency told us. He then added, “You shouldn’t blame us; we live in a Muslim society, and we have to adapt to its norms.”
Landlords and real estate agents alike are hesitant when it comes to female tenants. It doesn’t matter whether they’re single, divorced, or widowed, and whether or not they have children.
Financial difficulties
In the summer of 2025, Algerian authorities lifted their reservation to Article 15(4) of CEDAW (the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women), concerning the freedom of movement and residence of Algerian women. This new framework, applauded by Algerian feminists and other human rights NGOs such as Amnesty International, provides a “clearer legal basis” than the previous framework. This is despite the fact that the Algerian Family Code, in force since 2005, contains no restrictions on women’s freedom of residence and movement, while the Algerian Constitution also guarantees this right.
Under local law, Article 72 of the Algerian Family Code requires the father, in the event of divorce, to provide decent housing or housing assistance (a lease of at least one year, in a nearby and non-isolated location) to the person awarded custody of the children, who is generally the mother. This applies even if the mother already owns her own home. Refusing to pay this assistance is also a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment and a fine.
In reality, the amount awarded for custody, meaning alimony and housing assistance, is often negligible and insufficient to cover the entire rent. And rent payments cease when the children reach the age of majority.
Algerian legal professionals consider housing assistance paid for children after divorce to be far below actual rental market prices. These allowances range from around 5,000 to 12,000 Algerian dinars (between 35 and 80 euros), while apartment rentals start at 20,000 Algerian dinars (135 euros) and vary depending on the location.
It should be noted that divorce figures in Algeria have skyrocketed in recent years. The National Office of Statistics (ONS) reports an increase in divorce cases from 31,021 in 2005 to 93,402 in 2023.
