FEMINIST INTERNATIONAL Radio ENDEAVOUR
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WOMEN'S WORLDS CONGRESS 2008
THE WORLD TURNS THE OTHER WAY: July 8, 2008
Feminist
International Radio Endeavour
Taiya and Zahra Amed, of the Organization of Western Saharawi women were among several Saharawi women who traveled to Madrid, Spain for the 10th Interdisciplinary World Congress of Women 2008. According to Amed, they came to denounce the repression and oppression of the Western Saharawi peoples, and “to transmit a message of peace, especially in the voice of women” in their struggle for equality, freedom and independence.
Several
women at the World Congress responded by working with the Saharawi women to
compose a
declaration demanding that the conference organizers, and the
governments of Spain and Morocco take action to resolve the situation
involving numerous human rights violations in the Saharawan occupied zones.
For more than 30 years,
over half of the population of Saharawis, the indigenous population of the
Western Sahara, have lived in four refugee camps in the barren wind-swept
desert of Algeria, whereas the others live within Moroccan under conditions
of occupation and repression. Morocco invaded the Western Sahara in 1976
after centuries of occupation by Spain, and the ensuing conflict forced
hundreds of thousands of Saharwis to flee to Nigeria to escape the bombs and
napalm.
After a war between the
Moroccan government and the Polisario guerillas, an independence movement of
the Sahwaris, the Moroccans build a highly controlled and militarized
separation wall that stretches 2200 kms. and divides in half the Western
Sahara country including many families. The west side, rich with natural
resources including phosphate and fisheries is controlled by Morocco,
whereas the east side is barren desert, where the refugees rely almost
entirely on dwindling international humanitarian aid.
The UN declared Morocco’s
occupation of Western Saharwi a violation of that country’s sovereignty, but
efforts to broker a peace agreement through the years by the UN, the African
Union and others have so far failed. One referendum brokered by the UN
would provide for self determination for the Saharawis if it passes, but
Morocco refused to allow the referendum to be held. And the Saharawis are
still waiting.
But the occupation of the
Western Sahara is a long forgotten occupation, with little coverage in
media, and little political will by governments or the UN to resolve the
situation. As noted in the recent report by the Norwegian Refugee Council,
“the international community has chosen to look the other way.” Instead,
attention has been diverted by western interests (particularly the US and
France) involving valuable natural resources of phosophorus, fisheries and
potentially oil in the Western Sahara, and Morocco’s efforts to join the
European Union. And the Saharawis are still waiting.
“My country is
considered the last colony of the African continent,” declared
Zahra Ahmed, of the
Organization of Western Saharan Women in an interview with FIRE. “My
country continues suffering the
consequences of the armed forces imposed on us by the Moroccan government.”
Those Saharawis who
remained in their homeland now occupied by Morocco have constantly faced
arrest, imprisonment, death and “disappearance” at the hands of Moroccan
occupying forces. Peaceful demonstrations are met with violent repression.
Hundreds have been arrested. Women and children have been assaulted in
their homes by Moroccan security forces.
Women have long played a
strong role in Saharawian society, and today are the foundation of life in
the refugee camps, which are comprised of 90% women and children. Many of
the men are either dead from the war with Morocco or are away and stationed
with the Polisario Front. Women are the key figures in education,
administration and health. And they also are leaders in the struggle for
their country’s freedom and independence. The resolution proposed at the World Women’s Congress is an effort to generate support for the Western Saharawi movement for self determination, said Amed, and to bring a “pacific and just ending to this conflict…to bring freedom, justice and peace for the Saharawian population.”
Sources:
FIRE interview with Zahra
Amed, Organization of Western Sahara Women ( in Spanish) Brennan, Stephanie (2001, Aug. 29), “Western Sahara: A Saharawi woman’s plea,” Green Left Online (http://www.greenleft.org.au/2001/462/25358). Norwegian Refugee Council (2008, Aug. 1), “Western Sahara: NRC Launches Report – Turning the Blind Eye on the Western Sahara,” allAfrica.com (http://allafrica.com/stories/200804010610.html ). Zeina, “Sarahawi women and their struggle for independence” (2007, Dec. 24), (blog). (http://saharawiyazeina.blogspot.com/2007/12/saharawi-women-and-their-struggle-for.html).
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