THE WASHINGTON POST: SAHARAWI WOMEN PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

The famous american newspaper The Washington Post has recently published an interesting article on the forgotten conflicto in Western Sahara. The american journalist Loveday Morris has visited the occupied Saharawi capital, Laayoune, and has written the following article in which has underlined the important role are playing the saharawi women in the struggle for freedom and justice in what is known as the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara.

      

LAAYOUNE, Western Sahara — As dusk enveloped the salmon-pink houses of this capital city, the brightly colored robes of women stood out in a mass of protesters chanting for independence from Moroccan rule.

While other colonies in Africa threw off occupiers one by one, this rocky desert expanse on the continent’s northwestern coast remains a disputed territory controlled primarily by next-door Morocco and locked in a nearly 40-year-old forgotten struggle for the right to choose its fate. And in a Muslim-majority region where women are often marginalized from politics, women have taken an unusually prominent role in Western Sahara’s independence movement.

 

  Their involvement has spanned a guerrilla war with Morocco and, for the past two decades, a mostly peaceful protest movement. Female activists in the former Spanish colony attribute the phenomenon to a combination of the indigenous Sahrawi population’s moderate interpretation of Islam and the freedom they derived from their nomadic roots — but also, perhaps counterintuitively, 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 Aminatou Haidar, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and the most recognizable face of Western Sahara’s nationalist movement.
But as its duration shows, the campaign is an uphill battle that has so far been won by Morocco, which annexed most of Western Sahara after the Spanish withdrawal in 1976. Morocco argues that Western Sahara — home to abundant fishing grounds, lucrative phosphate mines and offshore oil — is an integral part of its territory and that separatists represent just a fraction of the population of about 500,000.
That is now probably the case, because Moroccan citizens — whom the Moroccan government entices to the area with tax breaks — are thought to outnumber the remaining 150,000 or so Sahrawis inside the territory by at least two to one.
The United States, like most nations, does not recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, but calls by the Sahrawi people for a referendum on independence have made little headway. Experts attribute that to a combination of Moroccan lobbying against the proposal, lack of international will to upset one of the region’s most stable countries and arguments between Morocco and the Sahrawis’ rebel-movement-turned-government-in-exile, the Polisario Front, over who should vote.
Moroccan officials argue that an independent Western Sahara is not viable and that longtime enemy Algeria is backing the cause to stir problems.
“There is no room for a failed state in the region,” Moroccan Deputy Foreign Minister Youssef Amrani told reporters in May. “It will fall into the hands of extremists.”
Despite the independence movement’s regular protests, the victories are small. Still, it appears to have brought about a shift in Moroccan government policy, which now officially supports making Western Sahara an autonomous region within the Moroccan state.
“Even if I don’t reach that day when the Sahara is independent, I am completely convinced that the next generation is going to live the day of independence,” Haidar said.  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/in-western-sahara-women-play-large-role-in-forgotten-struggle-for-independence/2013/07/07/f46f23ec-dd06-11e2-85de-c03ca84cb4ef_story.html

   

MINISTER KHADIDJA HAMDI IN AN IMPORTANT AFRICA´S EVENT HELD IN ABUJA - NIGERIA -

An important Saharawi Women´s delegation led by the Minister of Culture, Mrs. Khadidja Hamdi has atended the second High Level Meeting of the Global Power Women Network Africa (GPWNA) held in Abuja, Nigeria from June 24th to 25th.  The main theme of this importtant continental conclave was  accelerating the implementation of commitment for women and girls, Socio-economic development amongst other things.

After this event, The First Lady of Nigeria Ms Dame Patience Jonathan has received the saharawi women´s delegation led by Minister Hamdi who reaffirmed solidarity with the struggle of Saharawi women for freedom and independence, praising, on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the remarkable and effective presence of Saharawi women in the various feminist events organized by Nigeria in the recent years.

During a reception on honor of the Saharawi delegation that attended the Second High Level Meeting of GlobalPOWEr Women Network Africa, Mrs. Jonathan expressed her desire to further diversify, develop and deepen the relations of partnership between Nigerian and Saharawi women to serve the interests of both sides, as to reflect the aspiration of the African woman to play her full role in pushing forward the wheel of development, democracy and human rights in the continent. She, in this regard, stressed the need to maintain constant communication between women from different parts of the continent to exchange  their experience and to identify the common objectives consultatively.

From her part, Head of the Saharawi Delegation and Minister of Culture Ms Khadija Hamdi expressed the gratitude of Saharawi women, and through them the Saharawi people as a whole, to Nigeria's people and government, for their principle of support to the Saharawi people. She, in particular, praised the personal sympathy and solidarity shown by Nigeria’s First Lady with the Saharawi woman in particular and the African one in general.

The Saharawi delegation has been in Abuja since June 27, after taking part at the Second High Level Meeting of the GlobalPOWEr Women Network Africa, which had convened in Abuja. The delegation includes Ms Fatma Al-Maehdi, the Secretary General of the Saharawi Women Union, Ms Sukeina Larabas, as an Advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, Mr Abbi Bachraya Bachir, the SADR Ambassador in Nigeria, and Mr Wadad Mustapha, who is in charge of a mission in the SADR embassy in Abuja.

The Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic's Minister of Culture, Ms Khadija Hamdi has also highlighted from Abuja the leading role played by Africa in supporting the struggle of Saharawi people, in a speech delivered last Friday on the occasion of the High Level Meeting of the GlobalPOWEr Women Network Africa, in the Nigerian capital.

Ms Khadija Hamdi talked about the flagrant violations of human rights being committed by the Moroccan state against Saharawi women in the occupied territory of Western Sahara. “The completion of Africa’s sovereignty requires awareness from African women to the suffering of Saharawi women and to the importance of showing solidarity with them to achieve self-determination and national independence,” said the Minister.

Recalling the situation of women in Africa, the Saharawi official indicated that the vestiges of colonialism and apartheid remain the umbrella under which all diseases nest, including AIDS, ignorance, backwardness and violence, amongst others.

This, added Ms Hamdi, requires real participation by women in decision-making positions, hence they are closest to recognize the everyday problems of the family and the community, calling for the liberation of women and youth initiatives, especially those complementary to the governments’ efforts, and to benefit from African capabilities and competencies specialized in the fields of research and the support of sustainable development programmes.

The minister, therefore, urged to intensify sensitization campaigns in all mass media and make use of social networking websites effectively, in a way that deepens Africa’s unity and integration, economically and culturally.