Divorce, Sahrawi-style

Western Sahara's cultural distinctiveness from Morocco is further proved in this 2004 BBC article about the differences between divorce in Western Sahara and Morocco. The gist is that getting divorced in Western Sahara isn't that sad and actually kind of fun, whereas in Morocco no one got divorced until the king said women could leave their husbands if they were beaten (seriously).

Did you realize that until February 2004 Moroccan women were required by law to obey their husbands? That hardly mattered for Sahrawis living under the occupation, though, because they've known domestic violence sucks for a while:

"For us, if a man beats his wife, he is no longer a man, he is a dog," said Salka, a 45-year-old Saharawi woman, recently divorced for the second time.

In the Western Sahara, if a man beats his wife the minimum he must do to ask her forgiveness is hold a second wedding, with all the gifts of camels and jewellery that entails.

That makes the $4 million Kobe Bryant apology ring look like getting off easy. If a woman does get divorced, though, she doesn't argue over alimony or join eHarmony--she throws a party until she gets married again:

"The party is meant to pay homage to the divorced woman, so that she doesn't feel weak or ashamed.

"We dress up, we get a band to play, and the men who fancy the divorced women bring her presents, like a camel, perfume, or money. It can last for three days, or as long as it takes for the woman to accept another offer," says Fatou.

There's even more in the article about how Sahrawi society embraces divorced women and keeps them from feeling outcast. Apparently Sahrawi men want divorced women because they're more "experienced." Those parties where everyone gets to watch the courting sound great. Attending a Sahrawi divorce party is now on my list of things to do before I die.

Via Justin Knapp, friend of oppressed peoples and bloggers without material everywhere.

Hung out pretty close with some questionable folks

Mikael meets a D.C. local

Had a lovely hamburgers and French fries lunch with Mikael Simble two days ago, he of the Norwegian Support Committee and the protest we did in front of the Moroccan embassy. If you have the chance to meet someone from the internet Western Sahara scene in person, do it--it'll cheer you up and give you new motivation to get a referendum.

If anyone's ever in the DC area (8th grade class trip, treaty negotiations and Manhasset was booked) hit me up and we'll get something delicious. Our area Qdoba has started offering a lot of discounts, so we can't afford not to meet.

Happy Mawlid al-Nabi, Muslim readers

Do it up right. Wikipedia says is sometimes like a carnival--what are your Mawlid plans?

Also, Purim props to Jewish readers. I read somewhere that Purim involves people wearing costumes. Why can't I wear a costume for Easter? It's a deficiency in Christianity that I don't get to go to a carnival or wear a costume this week.

Dual SMGs, dual referendums

The Liberal International report has a proposal for settling Western Sahara I've never heard of: dual referendums. It was recommended by one of the members of the LI delegation. Here's how it would go:

61. A third method suggested by one of the Delegates is to hold a referendum in two stages:

i) The first referendum would be between integration into Morocco or autonomy. If integration was chosen, this would be the final solution.

ii) If autonomy was chosen, then there would be a second referendum on either autonomy or independence.

62. This is similar to Baker Plan I, which suggested granting autonomy to the Western Sahara with a referendum between autonomy or independence five years afterwards, however with an additional preliminary stage of a referendum which gives the option of integration into Morocco.

63. Morocco might prefer the dual referendum to Baker Plan I as the first referendum does not provide any option for independence.

To point 63, I say "duh". Can you imagine how fast Morocco would take a vote for autonomy in the first vote as proof Sahrawis love being in Morocco? There'd never be a second vote.

Hans Van Baalen's Liberal International report on Western Sahara

The Sahrawis turned me into a lobster!

From April 3rd to 7th 2006, members of the Liberal International toured Western Sahara and Tindouf to come up with a report for the International's European parties. Led by Hans van Baalen, a Dutch MP and shadow minister (spooky!), the commission concluded that autonomy for Western Sahara is a great idea. This is interesting because it seems like a majority of liberal parties in Europe don't like the occupation.

While Morocco saw the report, it's not clear if SADR ever did (they didn't get back to me). Anyone up for possibly secret reports? I have a copy, so leave a comment or send me an email if you want it. I'm trying to upload it on document sites but having a terrible time of it--once Scribd and its clones start liking the PDF, it'll be up here. Until then, a taste:

The LI Delegation believes that autonomy for the Western Sahara, as offered by the monarch, should be seen as a positive step and should be seen on its own merits. Autonomy could be both an interim solution and also an end state.

Polisario Think Twice throws the kitchen sink at SADR

and seems to come up empty. There's some slavery talk and video I want to talk about more, but for now, I leave with a description of Kim Jong Il, one of the "godfathers" of the Tindouf camp:

Kim Jong-II “Doctor Folamour”: 66 years old, leader of the Republic of North Korea, Secretary General of the Korean working Party, directs North Korea since 1994. He maintains continuous tides with the leaders of the Polisario. Kim Jong is suspected of maintaining a nuclear program. Fan of American movies, he would plan to turn a remake of the “seven mercenaries” with for principal role Mohammed Abdelaziz, Secretary general of the Polisario.

Emphasis mine. Isn't that rich? Stalin and Fidel Castro are the other godfathers. I've never heard of the Seven Mercenaries, but I'm sure Abdelaziz could do a bang-up job.

The site's registered, as you might expect, in Dallas, the same place Polisario Confidential and friends are.

Sahara Marathon

In a video I'll post soon, one of the organizers of the Sahara Marathon in Tindouf says it's a great occasion for raising awareness of the Sahrawi struggle. Probably, but I have to wonder if it wouldn't be more effective if it was held in a Western country. Everyone in Tindouf already knows about Western Sahara. Holding it in a foreign city would mean people passing by would see it and it'd be more accessible to media.

Sahrawi speakeasies

Another day, another group of travelers passing through Western Sahara try to understand it. This batch does better than the last one at understanding the political situation. Even if they couldn't tell their Laayoune from their lay-ups they'd be awesome, because the group found a secret Western Sahara bar. Check out the link for surreptitious iPhone pictures, including black bags for people to hide their loot.

Wild Western Saharan

A wild boy from Western Sahara made a list of feral children. For some reason, he's called the Syrian Gazelle Boy, but he was found in Rio de Oro in 1960 by an anthropologist (Nick Brooks?). His name isn't the only strange thing about this story:

On the horizon he saw a naked child “galloping in gigantic bounds among a long cavalcade of white gazelles”. The boy walked on all fours, but occasionally assumed an upright gait, suggesting to Auger that he was abandoned or lost at about seven or eight months, having already learnt to stand. He habitually twitched his muscles, scalp, nose and ears, much like the rest of the herd, in response to the slightest noise. He would eat desert roots with his teeth, pucking his nostrils like the gazelles. He appeared to be herbivorous apart from the occasional agama lizard or worm when plant life was lacking. His teeth edges were level like those of a herbivorous animal. In 1966 an unsuccessful attempt was made to catch the boy in a net suspended from a helicopter; unlike most of the feral children of whom we have records, the gazelle boy was never removed from his wild companions.

I'm glad Khalihenna Ould Rachid escaped the helicopters. Who else could lead CORCAS?

From Justin Anthony Knapp, naturally.

Sahrawi in spirit

My two new Western Sahara-related posts mean I can link you to things that aren't really related to Western Sahara, but would be if they could.

• My good friend (maybe more?) Alex from Houston has started a birth control blog, Broken Rubbers. Alex rocks and so does birth control, so you'll be wise to keep up with her exploits.
  
• I wrote the cover story for the Georgetown Voice last week about Ray Tanter and Iran. He's a professor at Georgetown who's hot for the Mujahiden-e-Khalq, an Iranian group the State Department calls terrorists. Yvonne Ridley, who hosted a show about Western Sahara on Iranian TV, makes an appearance. Anyway, I'm proud of the article and if terrorism or the Middle East is your bag you should check it out.
  

Oh yeah, apparently something happened in Kosovo and Anna Theofilopoulou rolled out another solid article. Alle at Western Sahara Info has the deets.

Moroccan American Center for Policy doesn't exactly understand "facts"

The Maghreb Arabe Press (MAP), a news agency run by Morocco's government, never met a Western Sahara rumor or lie it didn't help propagate. Recently, it made up Danish support for the autonomy plan. Any third grader could see that MAP's biased, factually-questionable articles can't be used to bolster a case against Western Sahara--but then, the Moroccan American Center for Policy never was good at fractions.

Check out the MACP's page on the sinister Cuba-Polisario-Algeria triangle. Of the top five "recent headlines" on the page, 4 are from MAP. With friends like this, who needs objective journalism?

My source inside the MACP explained what's up--executive director Robert Holley just loves MAP. Below, an internal memo he sent chastising the MACP's code harem for not using MAP exclusively.

Thomas Paine chimes in on Western Sahara

HBO's The Wire rocks, but I never thought its writers would give me material for a post. They have, though, in a Time article about the United States' absurd "War on Drugs". Urging jurors to always vote to acquit in non-violent drug cases, they quote Thomas Paine on monarchy:

"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right"

That nicely explains why a lot of the things Sahrawi and foreign activists do--applauding maps that divide Morocco from its occupied territory, responding to pro-autonomy articles few people will read, shaming companies that look for offshore Saharan oil that might not even exist, or celebrating when a small country re-extends recognition to SADR--are more important than they seem. As long as efforts to make people think the Moroccan occupation is wrong outmatch the efforts by Mohammed VI and pals to create "a superficial appearance of being right," we're making progress toward a referendum.

I included a picture of Wire gangster Marlo Stanfield included because the drug kingpin is Baltimore's Mohammed VI: as Marlo broke the unwritten code between drug dealers, Mohammed VI perpetuated his father's violation of international law and self-determination . As Marlo murders people just for talking to police because his empire is so insecure that he can't afford to trust, so Mohammed VI has attacked even apolitical Sahrawis, beaten because his right to the territory is nonexistent.

Western Sahara checkpoint woes

Four Americans traveling around the world came to Western Sahara and discovered an unfortunate fact of life for visitors there: checkpoints. According to our intrepid explorers, they were pulled over eight times in one day, and learned that if you don't make friends with the guards they'll let you through faster. Good to remember for my eventual, oft-thwarted trip to the southern provinces.

Check out this dynamite picture from one of their involuntary pitstops. 4 Americans, a Moroccan soldier who looks so serious I thought he was kidding, a portrait of MVI, and a riot baton hidden behind the picture.

I'm surprised they made it through the checkpoints alive considering how little they seem to have no idea about Western Sahara:

Here in the Western Sahara semi-autonomous, free administered territory UN controlled Moroccan owned rebel occupied landmine danger zone surf resort area of the globe, it is really difficult to really tell what is going on.

I don't know what "free administered" means, but (besides Erik Jensen's warlord phase) I don't think Western Sahara has ever been UN occupied.