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,^[5] and again between 1987 and 1991,^[6] 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.^[7] During these three years and seven months^[8]^[9] in prison she was exposed to different forms of torture,^[10]^[11]^[12] and she still has traces of dog bites in her face, and no hair on her head because her scalp was burned with acid.^[13] In prison she met her husband,^[14] whom she married in 1991.^[15]

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.^[16] 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.^[17]

She has been imprisoned again in March 2006 and in December 2008^[18]

She currently is living in El Aiun,^[19] with her husband and five children.^[20]

References

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