Youth and sexuality in Algeria: transgression without revolution

This study attempts to describe the different way young people live their sentimental relations and sexual experiences in Algeria. It examines the way people try to conform and sometimes secretly transgress the norms. Social and religious norms forbid having sex before marrying and most of the youth conform to the social order. However, the average age to marry in Algeria is rising (around 30 for boys and girls) even if young people want to marry before. This is the result of unemployment, housing problems and large access to university. This article focuses on a minority of transgressive youth in the city of Oran. It describes the different logics people mobilise, highlighting the tension between individual and social demands. This study identifies the complexity and tensions of hybridisation and the way people try to shape their identity. It is argued that even if they transgress the norms, they still adhere to conformism and don’t mobilise their revendications in a politic way.