{"id":512,"date":"2013-07-08T12:29:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T12:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wsahara.stephenzunes.org\/?p=512"},"modified":"2013-07-08T12:29:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-08T12:29:36","slug":"washington-post-article-and-video-discusses-role-of-women-political-impasse-in-western-sahara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsahara.stephenzunes.org\/index.php\/2013\/07\/08\/washington-post-article-and-video-discusses-role-of-women-political-impasse-in-western-sahara\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Post article and video discusses role of women, political impasse in Western Sahara"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"508\" height=\"342\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-srv\/video\/videoEmbed.html?uuid=3391829e-e753-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342&#038;noheadline=0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In Western Sahara, women play large role in forgotten struggle for independence&#8221;<br \/>\nWashington Post<br \/>\nLoveday Morris<br \/>\nJuly 7, 2013<\/p>\n<p>LAAYOUNE, Western Sahara \u2014 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.<\/p>\n<p>While other colonies in Africa threw off occupiers one by one, this rocky desert expanse on the continent\u2019s 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\u2019s independence movement.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s moderate interpretation of Islam and the freedom they derived from their nomadic roots \u2014 but also, perhaps counterintuitively, to the prevalence of traditional gender roles, which they say give women the time to demonstrate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a pride for us, that this is led by women,\u201d said Aminatou Haidar, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and the most recognizable face of Western Sahara\u2019s nationalist movement.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u2014 home to abundant fishing grounds, lucrative phosphate mines and offshore oil \u2014 is an integral part of its territory and that separatists represent just a fraction of the population of about 500,000.<\/p>\n<p>That is now probably the case, because Moroccan citizens \u2014 whom the Moroccan government entices to the area with tax breaks \u2014 are thought to outnumber the remaining 150,000 or so Sahrawis inside the territory by at least two to one.<\/p>\n<p>The United States, like most nations, does not recognize Morocco\u2019s 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\u2019s most stable countries and arguments between Morocco and the Sahrawis\u2019 rebel-movement-turned-government-in-exile, the Polisario Front, over who should vote.<\/p>\n<p>Moroccan officials argue that an independent Western Sahara is not viable and that longtime enemy Algeria is backing the cause to stir problems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no room for a failed state in the region,\u201d Moroccan Deputy Foreign Minister Youssef Amrani told reporters in May. \u201cIt will fall into the hands of extremists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the independence movement\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven if I don\u2019t reach that day when the Sahara is independent, I am completely convinced that the next generation is going to live the day of independence,\u201d Haidar said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"508\" height=\"342\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-srv\/video\/videoEmbed.html?uuid=3391829e-e753-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342&#038;noheadline=0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>While other colonies in Africa threw off occupiers one by one, this rocky desert expanse on the continent\u2019s 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\u2019s independence movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11,29,47,131,132,136],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-aminatou-haidar","tag-codesa","tag-ghalia-djimi","tag-washington-post","tag-western-sahara","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Washington Post article and video discusses role of women, political impasse in Western Sahara - Western Sahara: War, Nationalism &amp; Conflict Irresolution<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wsahara.stephenzunes.org\/index.php\/2013\/07\/08\/washington-post-article-and-video-discusses-role-of-women-political-impasse-in-western-sahara\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Washington Post article and video discusses role of women, political impasse in Western Sahara - Western Sahara: War, Nationalism &amp; Conflict Irresolution\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While other colonies in Africa threw off occupiers one by one, this rocky desert expanse on the continent\u2019s 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. 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