Ministry of P&T
After obtaining my degree as a telecommunications engineer specialising in transmission, I began my career at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on 1 September 1975. My career within this ministry began under the rigour of the late Aït Messaoudène Saïd, a minister who set us an example of uprightness and integrity. Every morning, Mr Aït Messaoudéne stood at the entrance of the Ministry. He would be there, welcoming us but also checking that our dress was worthy of a civil servant. That is how, for the first time in my life, I met a minister of the Algerian republic. And that was how I learned an example of what quality management was: he was a man of virtuous qualities.
What I take away from my time at this ministry is the sense of responsibility entrusted to me from my earliest years. From ’75 to ’78 I held several posts as head of service at the Microwave Radio-Relay office of the ministry, taught at the École Centrale des P&T, worked as a district engineer, and then, after my husband was transferred to Tamanrasset as head of Daïra, I was transferred to Tamanrasset.
Among the main works I had to carry out was, in particular, the creation and opening of thirty-two postal agencies in the Hoggar, linked by radio. These were Harris links that I had to install and for which I had been trained:
Ministry of P&T 
Professional mission What was extraordinary at the time was this way of placing trust in young people by training them in the most advanced techniques of the moment and then giving them responsibility for a mission. So how could one not respond with total commitment?
It was at that moment; at 27, or barely 28, that I criss-crossed the Hoggar. And that is how I discovered the value, the only one that gives meaning to a life: peace with oneself, and …
That, the desert taught me.
I told this story on page 43, in a chapter titled: Lost, in “Nomade”. For 3 days and 3 nights, I was lost in the Timissao while I was meant to reach Timiaouine. I will return to this story in “the Story of the Desert”.
What I learned with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications were the responsibilities entrusted to me despite my youth, but above all in my status as a woman.
I was five months pregnant with Fares, my son who was born in Tamanrasset, and despite this my function and my responsibility took precedence over my condition as a woman. It was in December 1981, during the visit of the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Mr Boualem Bessaieh, to the earth station of Tamanrasset. From left to right, Mr Ahmed Sebbah the Wali (prefect) of the wilaya of Tamanrasset, Farida Sellal wilaya director of P&T of Tamanrasset, Mr Boualem Bessaieh Minister of P&T, the party’s national commissioner, and Mr Sellal Abdelmalek head of Daïra of Tamanrasset.
My devotion and my determination earned me the recognition of my superiors and of my ministry, which made my father very proud when one of his friends came to tell him that my photograph was hanging in the hall of the ministry. I was truly happy and fulfilled in my work, which absorbed me just as much as my little family.
But when my husband was promoted to the post of Wali (prefect) in the north of the country, I could no longer hold the post of wilaya director with my husband as my direct executive superior
Mission in the Sahara 
Professional portrait And so I left the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, which had taught me so much. I had the honour and the joy of having worked with these people of great values who gave so much to Algeria, not forgetting Messrs Aoubida, Bencheikh Lafgoun, Benabderahmane, Hamdaoui, Hamza, and so many others, for at that time the PTT family was known to be a model of administration.
Diplomas and certificates
PRINCIPAL WORKS IN THE POSTS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR
- Creation and opening of thirty-two postal agencies in the Hoggar, linked by radio.
- Study and supervision of the construction of a 10,000-line telephone exchange.
- Extension of satellite circuits.
- Study of the project to install automatic switching in Tamanrasset.
- Installation of automatic switching in In Salah with network extension.
- Study and project proposals for the extension of the telephone exchange, the line network and the transmission circuits (notably via satellite).
- Study of the project to connect 32 isolated localities to the national network.
- Study and construction of radio links (Tamanrasset-Algiers) serving as backup to the satellite circuits.
- Supervision and maintenance of the microwave links Béchar – Adrar – In Salah – Algiers.
- Study and supervision of underground ducting projects (urban and suburban cables).
- Control of postal and telephone management and operating systems in Tamanrasset and Adrar.
* 1980 : Diploma of Honour for the best worker of the year, awarded by the Minister of Posts & Telecommunications
PRINCIPAL TRAINING COURSES COMPLETED
- Training in the field of communication and the didactics of science.
- Training in enterprise management auditing.
- Training in data transmission and the study of terminal equipment and fibre-optic transmission systems.
- Training in postal operations management systems and telephone accounting.
- Training on HARRIS radio equipment – New York – U.S.
- Training in microwave radio-relay transmission systems
- Training in satellite transmission systems.
- Training in the field of electronic switching.