Sahara updates) women: ...their gains and freedoms will not be lost upon their return to Western Sahara.

[Boris Ryser]

Women| Saharawi women in the refugee camps

"The National Union of Saharawi Women (NUSW) is a people's
organisation of all the women of the Saharawi Arab Democratic
Republic SADR, created in 1979 on the initiative of the POLISARIO
Front. Today the NUSW has 10,000 members in the refugee camps in
Tindouf, the occupied and liberated areas of the Western Sahara and
living abroad as Saharawi emigrants, organised in local and regional
offices."

It is a common statistic, over 80% of all refugees are women and
children. The Saharawi women, however, are anything but common. This
section highlights the achievements and contributions of the
Saharawi women in exile, as well as their political participation.

In the early stages of exile, most of the men were fighting in the
POLISARIO army. The women were forced to become self-reliant and
establish the refugee camps on their own. While meeting the
immediate needs of food, shelter and medication, the duty of the
Saharawi women was also to build a nation. According to historians,
the Saharawi background prepared the women well for these tasks. In
pre-colonial times, the Saharawi women had relative equality and
control over two spheres of society. First, she was in control of
the tent, therefore the home, and was responsible for passing
culture from generation to generation.

The equality of Saharawi women also has a firm base in modern
society, beginning with the SADR Constitution adopted in 1976.
Article 30 states: The State will aim to defend the political,
economic, and social rights of Saharawi women and will guarantee
their participation in the improvement of society and in the
development of the country.

For these historical and contemporary reasons, the Saharawi women in
the camps have been successful. They established and manage schools,
day care centers, hospitals, clinics and museums. At the time of the
Moroccan invasion, the legacy of Spanish colonialism was a 90%
illiteracy rate among women. A refugee woman, Zahara Ramdane,
remembers, "The first thing POLISARIO did in cooperation with the
women's organization was to launch a literacy campaign in the
liberated zones of the Western Sahara and in the refugee camps.
Today, we are proud to say that all Saharawi women can at least read
and write."

The National Union of Saharawi Women (UNMS-Union Nacional de Mujeres
Saharaui) was established in 1979 to ensure women's participation in
decision making about the future of programs in the camps, in the
State and abroad. They have 57 members elected to five year terms
and the UNMS Secretary General is a member of the National Council
of POLISARIO. The UNMS runs a women's vocational training school to
teach income generating activities, nursing, day care management and
Spanish as a second language. On the international front, UNMS
representatives have attended all major world conferences, including
the Fourth World Conference on Women's parallel NGO forum in
Beijing.

Today, there is great respect for the work the women have done in
the camps. All Saharawis recognize the central role of women in the
camps and they are working to ensure that their gains and freedoms
will not be lost upon their return to Western Sahara.