Aminatou Haidar
Aminatou Ali Ahmed Haidar (; born 24 July 1966), sometimes known as Aminetou, Aminatu or Aminetu, is a Sahrawi human rights activist and an advocate of the independence of Western Sahara. She is often called the "Sahrawi Gandhi" or "Sahrawi Pasionaria" for her nonviolent protests. She is the president of the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA). She was imprisoned from 1987 to 1991 and from 2005 to 2006 on charges related to her independence advocacy. In 2009, she attracted international attention when she staged a hunger strike in Lanzarote Airport after being denied re-entry into Moroccan Western Sahara. Haidar has won several international human rights awards for her work, including the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, 2009 Civil Courage Prize and 2019 Right Livelihood Award. Background While her parents lived in Tan-Tan, a small city in southern Morocco with significant Sahrawi population (and former Spanish Cape Juby) where she passed her childhood, Aminatou was born in 1966 in Akka, in the Moroccan province of Tata, her grandmother's town, due to a bedouin tradition. She is not a member of the Polisario Front, although she considers the movement as the only representative of the Sahrawi people. She is divorced with two children, Hayat and Mohammed. 1987–1991 forced disappearance In 1987, Haidar participated in a nonviolent demonstration against Moroccan administration of Western Sahara. Along with many other attendees, she was subjected to forced disappearance by Moroccan authorities and held without trial until 1991, when she was released. According to Kerry Kennedy of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Haidar was "gagged, starved, sleep deprived, subjected to electric shock, severely beaten – and worse" during her imprisonment. Moroccan authorities gave no explanation for her detention. Amnesty International (AI) stated that she appeared to have been held for her peaceful advocacy for Western Sahara self-determination. 2005–2006 imprisonment On 17 June 2005, Haidar was attacked by police on her way to a demonstration in El Aaiún for the Western Sahara Independence Intifada. After admission to Belmehdi Hasan hospital and receiving twelve stitches for a head injury, she was arrested on charges of "participation in violent protest activities and incitement" and "belonging to an unauthorized association". She was then held in El Aaiún's Black Prison. She reportedly went on hunger strike from 8 August to 29 September to demand an investigation into torture allegations by fellow Saharawi detainees Houssein Lidri and Brahim Noumria as well as improved conditions of detention. On 14 December, she was sentenced to seven months in prison by the El Aaiún Court of Appeal. AI, which had sent an observer to cover the trial, declared that "the trial ... may have been unfair. The organization is consequently strengthened in its belief that the seven human rights defenders may be prisoners of conscience". The European Parliament also called for her immediate release along with that of Ali Salem Tamek and 37 other "political prisoners" in a 27 October 2005 resolution. On 17 January 2006, Aminatou