Douaa Berkani

I was born in oum el bouaghi not big of a city, in a conservative family, the eldest of 3 children. It took my parents 5 years to have me so once I got there they invested all their efforts in me haha, I was always expected to be the first in class & do good in school, later on I was constantly set an example for my 2 sisters and brother, so that created some sense of responsibility that I have to do good and be the best in everything. In my teenager era I started rebelling if I may say, I wanted to discover myself more and what do I want not what my parents want. And that was quite hard since I kind of relied on them in everything. I still chose medicine as a degree not out of passion but just to make them proud.

College was the peak of me getting to know myself more, I practically lived alone for 3 years, and got to know all types of people. People who I never thought existed in Algeria besides existing in Hollywood shows haha, anyways that influenced me a lot and I got to requestion everything I was taught and make up my own mind, and choose what’s right and what’s wrong regardless of what other people thought.

In the covid era I started hosting a weekly online debate on discord called sa9si, where I hoped to influence people to think for themselves rather than just following what has been said and implemented by others in their brains, as a debates lover I used to enjoy that more than anything. I also started using English more frequently and write about topics that I found interesting. Not to forget that I used to make content on Instagram, tackling taboos and sharing awareness about mental disorders, stigmatized conditions and so on.

As an active member in the society I joined as many clubs and association as possible and I advice all college students to do so, it opens new doors of knowledge and of network for you and volunteering itself is an experience that everyone should try, doing things for the good of others is worth every moment of one’s life.

I was a part of a medicine related association, later on I joined a women’s rights association and my favorite of all is story of hope’s association for the assisted kids and marginalized communities, we work with a very vulnerable category and we offer them both emotional and educational support, the work environment is great and all the members believe in the cause and do their best to give these kids a better chance in life. It was the best thing I’ve ever done in my college years.

I also work out very often, and try to have a balanced healthy style ( no I’m not a fit girl YET. But I try to do my best ).
Honestly working out helped me on so many levels, not just with the body imagine because that was my first motive but later on I figured that working out gives me mental strength, helps me with anxiety, and especially motivates me to be a better version of myself which is what I’m working on daily, I restarted reading books after a long pause, since my teenagerhood, and I’m trying to find what’s my genre znd type of the books so currently I’m reading everything and seeing what I like the most, the classics, George Orwell, books that inspired movies because I watch a lot of cinematic work and since I’m very invested in the pop culture as a gen Z, I find it very hard to enjoy other works for instance I was raised watching Hollywood, and now I am giving a chance to french and swedish cinema but it’s quite hard for me because I found them boring, in this journey I also watched a lot of iranian movies like the recent famous holy spider that I 100% recommend and I think their cinema is very underrated and very good.
For me Algerian cinema is quite bad if I may say but there are few Francoalgerian movies that I related on so much and I did enjoy a lot, like ce que le jour doit à la nuit, Papicha, les bienheureux…etc.

I also have a small business called @swipe.wire__ where I make jewlery and sell them, it’s one of my hobbies I find great joy in making the jewls and creating new artistic works.