Hadjatu Aliat Swelm (; born 1973) is a
Sahrawi poet, whose work examines the role of women in Sahrawi culture.
Biography
Swelm was born in the Sagir Valley,
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 ...
.
She has written poetry throughout her life, mostly political work which was first and has subsequently been published under a pseudonym. In 1999, the publication of a poem she wrote about 66 political prisoners led to Moroccan authorities finding out her identity and a loss of her anonymity.
After a rising number of police raids on her home and family, she moved to
Aosserd camp
Camp may refer to:
Areas of confinement, imprisonment, or for execution
* Concentration camp, an internment camp for political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or minority ethnic groups
* Extermination ...
, in order to protect her family from Moroccan authorities.
Her poetry focuses on the role of women within the
Sahrawi struggle.
Both she and the poet Hossein Moulud have written about life at the
Gdeim Izik protest camp.
[Berkson, Samuel; Sulaiman, Mohamed (2015). ''Settled Wanderers''. London: Influx Press. pp. 44, 48.]
Swelm's work was first translated to English by the writers Sam Berkson and Mohamed Sulaiman, in their volume of Sahrawi Poetry ''Settled Wanderers.''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swelm, Hadjatu Aliat
Sahrawi poets
Women poets
1973 births
Living people