Dozens of Algerians wearing traditional clothes rode horses and fired gunpowder with rifles during a festival marking the 62nd anniversary of the July 5, 1962 independence declaration that ended the French rule.
Horsemen in the show said their performance symbolizes the acts of Algerian resistance movements and is considered Algerian “customs and traditions since ancient times”.
Among the participants were also women and young girls, like 12-year-old Areej Benthabet whose father owns a horse club. She said her family supported her to ride horses and she “won’t ever quit”.
“People think that it is weird that my daughter rides fast horses and uses rifles , but it is normal, it is a heritage. Our women used to fire gunpowder with rifles during the liberation war. Women had an essential role and thank God, my daughter loves that and I support her,” said the young girl’s father, Hamouda Benthabet, standing next to his daughter as she got ready for the performance.
Algeria lived under French rule for 132 years until it won the independence war in 1962.
Between 1954 and 1962, France waged a war against an independence movement in its then colony. Hundreds of thousands of Algerians were killed, and French forces and their proxies used torture against opponents, according to historians.
