Regional/Cultural Day
Ruz el Hirak
February 22, 2019, millions of Algerians took to the streets every Friday in peaceful protest and forced a president from power. No violence, no retreat, just Fridays. The Hirak was the largest sustained protest movement in Algerian history, and it achieved what decades of opposition had failed to do: the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika after twenty years in power. The pride of a generation. The banners said "no to a fifth term" and the streets said it louder. Every Friday for months, rain or heat, the people walked, and the regime listened. The Hirak proved that Algeria's revolution gene is still active, and that the generation dismissed as apathetic was simply waiting for its moment.
