Fatma El Mehdi(also Fatma Mehdi Hassan) is a

Western Sahara Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a surface area of . Approximately 30% of the territory () is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is ...

n activist. She is currently the secretary general of the

National Union of Sahrawi Women The National Union of Sahrawi Women (; Spanish: ''Unión Nacional de Mujeres Saharauis'', UNMS) is the women's wing of the Polisario Front. It was created in 1974, and claims to have 10,000 members, divided between the Sahrawi refugee camps, the ...

. El Mehdi is also the first Western Saharan woman to attend a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

conference for

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

. She has also served as president of the Women's Committee and Equality in Economic, Social and African Cultural Council ( ECOSOCC). El Mehdi has lived in an

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

n refugee camp for about forty years.

Background

Fatma El Mehdi grew up within the ongoing conflict of

Western Sahara conflict The Western Sahara conflict is an ongoing conflict between the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic/Polisario Front and the Morocco, Kingdom of Morocco. The conflict originated from an insurgency by the Polisario Front against Spanish colonial ...

between the

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), also known as the Sahrawi Republic and Western Sahara, is a partially recognized state in the western Maghreb, which claims the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara, but controls only ...

Polisario Front The Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro (Spanish language, Spanish: ; ), better known by its acronym Polisario Front, is a Sahrawi nationalism, Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement seeking to end the occupatio ...

and the

Kingdom of Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to the east, and t ...

. During the conflict, Saharawi women established and administered a national network that was associated with administrative ministries, educational institutions, mass civil unions, and local councils that reorganized the political and social order of Western Sahara after their national revolution. She was born in

Smara Smāra (also romanized Semara, , ; ) is a city in the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara, with a population of 57,035 recorded in the 2014 Moroccan census. It is served by Smara Airport and Smara bus station. History The largest city in ...

Es Semara Province Es Semara () is a province in the Moroccan economic region of Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra, and the disputed territory of Western Sahara Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a su ...

, Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra, Western Sahara, previous Morocco in 1969.

Childhood

When Fatma El Mehdi was seven, in 1975, she was evacuated from

El Aaiún Laayoune or El Aaiún (, Latn, ar, al-ʕuyūn , , ) is the largest city of the disputed territory of Western Sahara, with a population of 271,344 in 2023. The city is the ''de jure'' capital of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, though it ...

, escaping amidst bombs and napalm. She walked for days with a small group of men and women without food or water until she came to one of the first Sahrawi refugee camps.

Career

Today, Fatma El Mehdi is the Secretary-General of The National Union of Saharawi Women in New York. She is there to share the history, story and dreams of her compatriots from

. El Mehdi is also the first Western Saharan woman to attend the United Nations conference for women's rights."The Struggle of Sahrawi Women for Freedom: Fatma El-Mehdi"
2012-03-06. Retrieved 2022-03-24.

Bibliography

Kouddous, Sharif Abdel. "Letter From Western Sahara, a Land Under Occupation." ''The Nation''. 11/4/13.

References

External links

Fatma El Mehdi at CUNY Center for Peace, Culture and Politics
(video)
An Interview with Fatma El Mehdi: Western Sahara Peace and Women's Right Activist
Living people 1960s births Sahrawi women's rights activists People from Laayoune Place of birth missing (living people) Sahrawi feminists Year of birth missing (living people) {{WesternSahara-bio-stub