You could hear it when you called Kamira Nait Sid’s phone. A four-minute automated message called for unity to oppose Algerian repression of the Kabyle people. “We demand the release of all political prisoners,” it said at the end. It could be heard until Nait Sid herself, president of the World Amazigh Congress (WAC), also became a political prisoner. A group of hooded men came looking for her at her home on 24 August 2021. Family members and her lawyer were notified three days after the arrest, and charges were filed two days later. Kamira Nait Sid, a renowned intellectual and advocate for human rights and especially women’s rights —she was even a 2014 United Nations scholarship recipient— is accused of “undermining national security and state security” and belonging to a “terrorist organisation.” She has received a three-year prison sentence. Keep reading