The impact of Saharawi resistance in the occupied territories of WS by Morocco, the case of Sultana Khaya

PUSL.- During the visit of Sultana Khaya in Lisbon, Portugal, at the invitation of the Democratic Movement of Women (MDM), PUSL had the opportunity to talk with the activist who has been the target of reprisals, torture, amputation and rape since her youth and recently spent one year and seven months under arbitrary house arrest in Boujdour, in the Moroccan occupied territories of Western Sahara.

Ms Khaya denounced the numerous human rights violations she has been subjected to in all meetings and hearings in the 4 days she was in Portugal. At the MDM congress Sultana received a standing ovation for several minutes and a motion of solidarity with the Saharawi people was passed.

“Every day since the first day that I came home and found my mother in a weakened state, deplorable, because of the physical aggression she had been subjected to, we hoisted our flag on the roof of our house and on our windows.

It was a year and seven months of constant brutality against us women and also children who lived in this house. I can’t tell you everything that happened, there were too many things, what is certain is that my nephews of 6 months and 6 years old were traumatised for the rest of their lives and they were also victims of direct and indirect violence, they had to leave the house, we feared for our lives and they tried to attack us with chemicals and even demolished part of the house to kill us. On one of the several nights when the Moroccan soldiers raped us (me and my sister Luaara) they turned on the lights and made my 86 year old mother watch. There were several … ”

Sultana does not cry, she says “if I start crying I will not stop, I will not be able to tell of report…. if I start crying …” she takes a deep breath and suppresses the tears, the screams, that gush silently and interruptedly inside her, captive of the moment when she will release decades of suffering. Traumas which affect her, her family and thousands of Saharawis in the occupied territories since 1975, different but equal traumas that have Saharawis in the refugee camps, exiled in the desert far from the Atlantic coast of their country, victims of separation and bombings, victims of international silence.

Silence… the silence around the Saharawi question is a constant and referred to many times, the silence of the United Nations, the silence of Spain, the silence of the international community, the silence which stifles lives which crushes the cry, the silence which tries to erase history.

But Sultana and Luaara were not silent in this year and seven months, their screams, their torment, their suffering were heard beyond the walls of their home. The neighbours, the Moroccan settlers heard and saw the barbarities committed against innocent women whose only crime is to speak out, to denounce, to demand compliance with international law and the resolutions of the United Nations. How then do Moroccan civilians react to this violence?

How did they react during the time of resistance of these women who despite all the rapes, beatings and other barbarities climbed every day to the roof of their house carrying the flags of their country? This example of unique courage, of resilience, of non-violent resistance which should be world news and which is the example of the life of the Saharawi people undoubtedly had an impact on ordinary Moroccans, the colonists in the occupied territories and civilians in the Kingdom of Morocco.

We asked Sultana: how did the Moroccan neighbours react, how did the Moroccan population react?

“We have various reactions, says Sultana. Those who support the regime out of fear or interest or ignorance who even attacked us, without any reason, also during our captivity.

We have those who have remained silent out of fear.

And then there are those who live in Boujdour and passed by our house in the street and supported us and also from other cities in the occupied territories we received reports from settlers who were outraged by the situation.

PUSL: And in the Kingdom of Morocco? Have you had any reaction from Moroccans outside the occupied territories?

“Yes, including from Moroccan students who sent me messages of encouragement and solidarity, that was very important.”

Sultana’s account is surprising, as expressions of support for the Saharawis from Moroccans are rare. Simply saying “Western Sahara” is punishable by law, the King and the Makhzen (shadow state) have drawn a thick red line on this subject, the name of the occupied territories that have been renamed “southern provinces” or “Moroccan Sahara” is not mentioned nor is the occupation mentioned, everything is taboo and results in prison.

We are in the 21st century, social networks and access to information are available to a significant part of the world population and the Moroccans are no exception. The barbarities to which Saharawis are subjected in the occupied territories are denounced and begin to have no possible justification, not even for the Moroccan population, especially when it is a question of women, one of them elderly, unarmed, without committing any crime, imprisoned in a house surrounded by an immense apparatus of repression, including cranes to demolish the house.

The ridiculousness of the situation and the desperation of the Kingdom of Morocco in full view of the world.

The resilience of Sultana and her family, aroused sympathy and respect, even for those who remained silent.

The example of these women spoke louder than all the shouting and laid bare the Moroccan impotence and lack of reason.

Will the Moroccans draw strength from this example and, despite all the repression they are subjected to, rise up against a medieval state? Perhaps in the future, uprisings and demonstrations on Moroccan soil are silenced by force, the image of a tourist and developed country is sold to Europeans, but it is only an image.

The recent BBC report on the massacre of sub-Saharan migrants in Mellila is an example of an image that is slowly crumbling, leaving the real image exposed.

Sultana, who these days has suffered physically and psychically to be able to attend all the meetings and who has had to relive every second of her torment when she repeats and repeats and repeats her suffering, the violence suffered, is an indelible icon.

She is the image of the unbreakable will of the Saharawis to live in their country free from Moroccan occupation.

And it is because she is a woman, fragile in appearance, but steel in reality, that Morocco has to fear her and all Saharawis.

To fear that law, justice and destiny will become a reality in a Kingdom which, however much support it has internationally, is rotten inside. A Kingdom which in its ignorance and its barbaric and illegal actions has forged young Saharawis who do not fear Morocco because they have nothing to lose and whose aim is to win freedom.

And we end with the words of Sultana in her speech at the congress of the MDM, which demonstrate her goal and that of her people:

“Our only desire is to live under the shadow of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic”.