Freedom for Western Sahara: Sahrawis Demand End of Moroccan Occupation at U.N. Human Rights Council

We go to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, where activists are shining a light on Morocco’s brutal occupation of Western Sahara and its Indigenous people, the Sahrawi. The Sahrawi journalist and activist Asria Mohamed speaks with Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman about “Jaimitna,” an art installation that evokes the tents of Sahrawi people living in refugee camps. The installation features various melhfas, traditional clothing worn by Sahrawi women, and includes their stories. “These women, they spent years and years in prison. They have been tortured. They have been beaten up. They have been raped,” Mohamed says. We also speak with María Carrión, executive director of FiSahara, the Sahara International Film Festival, who says the story of the Sahrawi must be better known. Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975 in defiance of the United Nations and the international community. The first Trump administration recognized Moroccan sovereignty in 2020 as part of a larger effort to normalize relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.