Sahrawi women: recovering their place

The Sahrawi women have played a fundamental part and continue to be an essential pillar in Sahrawi society, in the organisation of refugee camps and in the struggle of this people to recover the rights torn from them. Thus, as indicated by the Association of Sahrawi Women in Spain, their legal and political status, and their position and recognition in society, is more advanced than it is in other countries around them. Historically, the nomad nature of their culture gave them a social status respected by men. In the absence of men, women would take charge of the productive and organisational work, of the family education, of culture and social relations. However, the arrival of colonialism fostered a sedentary lifestyle and rural exodus, relegating their role to the domestic sphere.

Later, following the occupation of Morocco, it was the women, since the men were away fighting in the war, who had to organise, build and administer life in the camps, going about jobs and occupying roles culturally reserved for the male sex. When the latter returned, both sexes once again started sharing spaces and the women lost part of their power and decision-making spaces.

Today, Sahrawi women are immersed in a process of empowerment and work actively to progress in the field of equal opportunities.

Film: Coría y el mar