They call it “The wheel of reprisals”. It consists of a series of escalating tactics by Morocco, with gender-based violence in its epicenter, to terrorize, shame, and isolate Sahrawi women activists in the Morocco-occupied Western Sahara. And, to accomplish its goal of removing Sahrawi women from public activism, Morocco uses the ultimate weapon against them: their own culture.
The “wheel of reprisals” is featured in a new report called Resilience in Resistance written by four women human rights defenders under occupation and released on November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It looks at how Morocco uses a combination of repressive measures and tactics — financial strangulation, defamation, arbitrary arrest, sexual harassment and assault, and rape, all of which feed into each other — to force women to abandon their activism, targeting their male relatives as a way of pressuring them to withdraw. The systematic and calculated tactics by Morocco have severe consequences for female participation in Western Sahara.
Aware that conservative Sahrawi society is still dominated by patriarchy and governed by values that include family honor, Morocco compounds the abuses by exploiting these norms, amplifying the psychological and social impact of the repression, as well as its effectiveness. Sexual violence, including rape and harassment, is weaponized as a tool of control, inflicting severe physical and emotional harm while silencing women through fear and stigma.
These violations take place in the context of Morocco’s five-decade military occupation of Western Sahara, which is designated by the United Nations as a non-self-governing territory pending decolonization via a referendum on self-determination. Referred to by Reporters without Borders as a “news black hole” and by some human rights organizations as a police state, Western Sahara is closed to outside observers, increasing the vulnerability and risk faced by its people, the Sahrawi, when attempting to defend their human rights and call for their right to self-determination.
While prior reports have detailed a wide swath of tactics of repression and gender-based violence by Morocco against Sahrawi women, Resilience in Resistance puts its spotlight on an issue that is not often addressed: How Morocco weaponizes Sahrawi traditions and conservative norms against Sahrawi women through sexual and gender-based violence, and how these tactics of division have proven to be devastating not only for the victims but for the entire Sahrawi people.
As a key historical ally of the West currently presiding the UN Human Rights Council, Morocco has carefully crafted a public image as a modern democracy respectful of human and women’s rights. The report unmasks Morocco’s true nature as a human rights violator that specifically targets women.
“Emerging from the weight of occupation and blockade, this report amplifies the voices of Sahrawi women, highlighting our collective struggles and bringing our stories to the world”, said the authors, El Ghalia Djimi, Mina Baali, Mahfouda El Fakir and Nasrathoum Babi, who themselves have endured decades of repression. Among them are former political prisoners, including a victim of enforced disappearance. They have all suffered arbitrary arrest, home sieges and gender-based violence.
The authors added: “The reason Morocco’s tactics work is because of how taboo this is in our society. So today we say: It is time to break the silence and start a conversation in our community so that Morocco no longer has the power to shame us. It is Morocco that must be shamed for its misogynistic violence against Sahrawi women.”
The report gives voice to all Sahrawi women under occupation and features several individual stories such as that of Sultana Jaya, who was repeatedly raped by Moroccan occupying forces along with her sister Luaara while under a prolonged house arrest in 2021. The sisters decided to make it public, helping to shatter the long-standing taboo of sexual violence.
“Sultana’s and Luaara’s case is a chilling example of Morocco’s treatment of peaceful women activists from Western Sahara. The authors of this report shows how the Moroccan wheel of repression escalates into the ultimate weapon of war: rape,” said Professor Mads Andenas (KC), who was the Jaya sisters’ international legal representative during their long house arrest and is also the former president-rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which issued a legal opinion condemning Morocco for its treatment of the Jaya family. “Within Morocco’s clear and systematic pattern of repressing human rights defenders in Western Sahara, the urgency for the international community to answer the call of Saharawi women enduring occupation has never been more critical”.
The report is published by the organizations NomadsHRC and the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara, with the support of the International Association for Human Rights Monitoring (AIODH) and Meedan.
