Aminatou Ali Ahmed Haidar is a Sahrawi human rights activist and a supporter of the independence of Western Sahara. Haidar was born on July 24, 1966 to Ali Haidar and Darya Mohamed in Akka, Morocco. Growing up, seven-year-old Haidar was introduced to the Sahrawi Liberation Movement when it began to fight for independence from Spanish colonial rule in the Western Sahara in 1973. Three years later, Spain withdrew from the Western Sahara, but Morocco quickly occupied and claimed the region.
In 1987, Haidar participated in a nonviolent demonstration among 400 protestors against the Moroccan administration of the Western Sahara. Haidar was thrown in a secret prison for four years. While there she suffered torture and ill-treatment. She also led the first prison hunger strike together with other Sahrawi activists, protesting the harsh conditions that they were experiencing.
After being released from prison in 1991, Haidar campaigned for the release of other Sahrawi political prisoners. She also raised awareness about human rights abuses at the time by holding the perpetrators accountable for their actions. Haidar continued to experience violence for her activism. On June 17, 2005, she was attacked by the police on her way to a demonstration in El Aaiun, Western Sahara during its Independence Intifada. After being physically attacked, she was arrested on charges of participating in violent protest activities and belonging to an unauthorized association. She was held in El Aaiun’s Black Prison, but while there from August 8, 2005 to September 29, 2005, she went on a hunger strike to demand an investigation into torture allegations by fellow Sahrawi detainees Houssein Lidri and Brahim Noumria, as well as improved conditions of detention.
On January 17, 2006, Haidar was released from prison. Three years later, on November 13, 2009, Haidar was denied reentry to Western Sahara upon her return from an overseas trip because she refused to describe herself as a Moroccan in the entry documents. Moroccan authorities confiscated her passport and deported her to the Spanish Canary Islands. Spain refused to send her back to the Western Sahara because she had no valid passport. In response, Haidar went on a hunger strike while stranded at the airport in Lanzarote, Canary Islands. When her health deteriorated because of the hunger strike, the incident gained international attention, and many people, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nobel Prize Laureates, and other celebrities, spoke out on her behalf. As a result, Morocco granted Haidar reentry to the Western Sahara after 32 days of the hunger strike.
In 2020, Haidar announced the establishment of the Sahrawi Organization Against the Moroccan Occupation (ISACOM) in response to the human rights abuses in the Western Sahara. Haidar has won several awards for her human rights work. This includes the V Juan Maria Bandries Award from the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR), the Solidar Silver Rose Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the Civil Courage Prize, and the Right Livelihood Award.
