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MOROCCO - WESTERN SAHARA - WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINE FOR TERRITORIAL INDEPENDENCE
Unusual for a Muslim country, Sahrawi women are leading the disputed territory's
fight for independence from Moroccan rule
Soldier on … women from the Polisario Front mark the declaration of
independence of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Photograph: Dominique
Faget/Getty
16 July - 2013 - As dusk enveloped the salmon-pink
houses of Laayoune, the brightly coloured robes of
women stood out in a mass of protesters in the centre of the capital of Western Sahara chanting
for independence from Morocco.
While other African colonies threw off occupiers
one by one, this desert expanse on the continent's north-western coast remains
a disputed territory controlled primarily by next-door Morocco
and locked in a nearly 40–year struggle for the right to choose its fate.
Unusually for a Muslim society, women play a prominent role in Western
Sahara's independence movement.
Their involvement has spanned a guerrilla war and,
for the past two decades, a mostly peaceful protest movement. Female activists
in the former Spanish colony attribute this to a combination of the Sahrawi
population's moderate interpretation of Islam and the freedom they derived from
their nomadic roots – but also to the prevalence of traditional gender
roles, which they say give women the time to demonstrate.
"This is a pride for us, that this is led by
women," said Arminatou Haidar, a
Nobel peace prize nominee and the most recognisable face of
But as its duration shows, the
campaign is an uphill battle that has so far been won by
That is now probably the case,
because Moroccan citizens – whom the Moroccan government entices to the area
with tax breaks – are now believed to outnumber the 150,000 or so Sahrawis
inside the territory by at least two to
Most nations, including the
one. Moroccan officials argue
that an independent Western Sahara is not viable and that its longtime enemy
"There is no room for a
failed state in the region," Moroccan deputy foreign minister Saadeddine
Othmani told reporters in May. "It will fall into the hands of
extremists."
Despite regular protests,
victories are small. Still, it appears to have brought about a shift in
Moroccan policy, which now supports making Western
"Even if I don't reach that
day when the
Instead of the dozens of people that most protests
draw, the May march drew well over 1,000, hundreds of them women. Some
activists described it as the largest in the history of the independence
movement, and they attributed the crowd in part to anger over a recent UN
security council decision not to approve a
The role of women can be
partially attributed to the Sahrawis' nomadic background, said Djmi El Ghalia,
a prominent activist. While men travelled, women controlled household finances
and ran the community. That legacy was consolidated in the refugee camps in
"Compared to the status and role
of women in the Islamic societies along the Mediterranean coast, Arabia . . .
women in Western Sahara enjoy significant advantages," said Jacob Mundy,
an assistant professor at
"The war gave women in the
camps more opportunities to become involved in the daily operations of the
independence struggle and the effort to build a state in exile," he said,
while across the border in the territory, female activists play a "huge
role".
Sahrawi female activists say they
generally have freedom to express their political views, and women divorce
without stigma.
Female empowerment spans both ends
of the political spectrum, and some women work in support of the Moroccan
government. Malainin Oum El Fadl is among them. She heads Espace Associatif
Laayoune, a women's collective that gives grants to small businesses and was
established after thousands of Sahrawis set up a protest camp near the capital
in 2010, which was later dismantled by Moroccan authorities.
"We wanted to absorb that
tension," El Fadl said. "We are not concerned with politics . . . To
us, bread comes before politics."
And not all is positive for women
in the Algerian camps, where there have been reports of women being imprisoned
for adultery and they remain excluded from the highest political posts. In
"It's about the space
provided," El Ghalia said. "Women stay at home and get more involved;
at the same time, men don't want to lose their jobs."
Women have paid a high price for
their role in the struggle. Both El Ghalia and Haidar spent years in detention
centres in the late 1980s, when forced disappearances of Sahrawis were
widespread.
Sitting in a traditional tent
erected on the rooftop of her Laayoune home, El Ghalia pulled back her
headscarf to show her scarred scalp, which she said was doused in chemicals
while in detention. She said she spent most of nearly four years blindfolded
and was often stripped naked and subjected to torture. "I still have the
scars from the dogs biting my flesh," she said.
Though the darkest abuses are over, they still go
on. Last month, Human Rights Watch reported
that Moroccan courts have convicted Western Saharan activists on the basis of
confessions obtained through torture or falsified by police.
In a hotel in Laayoune, another
activist, Sultana Khaya, recalled a 2007 protest during which she said a
policeman beat her face, causing her to lose one eye. She showed bruises from a
recent run-in with police.
"This is just small
testament compared to the testaments of other Sahrawi women since 1975,"
said Khaya, 32. "The Sahrawi woman is very great; she's very powerful. I
don't even think about getting married until the Sahrawi women become
independent."