Elghalia Djimi

Elghalia Djimi (Arabic: الغالية ادجيمي‎‎; born 28 May 1961) is the vice president of the organization Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State.[1] In this organization she records accounts of human rights violations and also coordinates the work of the organization in the absence of the president.[2] She is also a member of the Committee for the Families of Disappeared Saharawis.[3]

Biography

Elghalia Djimi was born in Agadir, Morocco in 1961. She was raised by her grandmother,[4] who disappeared in 1984 and has never returned. Djimi herself was also subject to a forceful disappearance in 1981,[1] and again between 1987 and 1991,[5] after participating in a protest against Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. This time, she was abducted together with her sister and the famous human rights defender Aminatou Haidar.[1] During these three years and seven months[6][2] in prison she was exposed to different forms of torture,[4] [7][5] and she still has traces of dog bites in her face, and no hair on her head because her scalp was burned with acid.[6] In prison she met her husband,[1] whom she married in 1991.[4]

In 1994, Djimi started to meet with other Saharawis who had been imprisoned, but her coordination efforts were stopped the same year by the Moroccan authorities.[5] In 1998 she succeeded in starting the work of meeting with other former prisoners and recording the human rights violations imposed on them, a work that continues up to this day.[5]

She has been imprisoned again in March 2006 and in December 2008[3]

She currently is living in El Aiun,[1] with her husband and five children.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 http://www.mujeressaharauis.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=35:entrevista-a-el-ghalia-djimi&catid=2:uncategorised&Itemid=101&lang=es
  2. 1 2 http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/2048
  3. 1 2 http://poemariosahara.blogspot.no/2008/11/la-activista-saharaui-gali-djimi-pide.html
  4. 1 2 3 http://www.hautcourant.com/El-Ghalia-Djimi-militante,599
  5. 1 2 3 4 http://asvdh.net/?p=7061
  6. 1 2 http://www.humanite.fr/node/35806
  7. 1 2 http://poemariosahara.blogspot.no/search/label/Galia%20Djimi
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