On Sunday, December 5, 2021, Sultana Khaya, and her sister, mother and brother were attacked in Western Sahara in their home by Moroccan authorities. Below are short and longer videos that show them speaking out about the attack (which included sexual assaults) and confronting the perpetrators on the street outside their home.
Western Sahara is occupied by Morocco in violation of international law and UN resolutions, but the Moroccan king gets enormous military and political support from the US, France, and Spain. The Khaya family nonviolently waves the Western Sahara flag on their townhouse roof everyday, enraging the Moroccan authorities. They do this under a siege of more than 1 year in which their electricity and water are turned off, and they have been repeatedly attacked, sodomized and sexually assaulted, and had household items stolen and destroyed. Yet their resistance continues.
Sultana Khaya
The international and US media is not covering this siege or the resistance of these sisters.
Posted below are the videos describing the December 5th attacks on the Khaya family:
The True Face of the Moroccan Kingdom (4 min) *There is no graphic violence in this video*
Moroccan Brutality on Human Rights Defender (22 min)
In March, NVI broadcast a webinar (Webinar: Nonviolence Resistance to Occupations) in which Sultana spoke live. Note the 22-minute mark, at which Sultana Khaya dramatically confronts those who besiege her house.
Additionally, see Sultana Khaya’s op-ed in CNN (Morocco: Western Sahara Activist Raped)...and yet the attacks continue.
Please Take Action with us to support these activists:
- 1) Support the new US Campaign to End the Morroccan Occupation of Western Sahara (co-founded by NVI) led by Bill Fletcher, Jr. of Transafrica and organized-labor fame. It can use funding and support. Here is their recent webinar that introduces the occupation Webinar: Africa’s Last Remaining Colony — End the Moroccan Occupation of the Western Sahara.
- 2) Please help inform your family, friends, and networks.
- 3) Contact your governments and Morocco to stop the attacks and siege on the Khaya family and to end the occupation.
Mubarak Awad & Jonathan Kuttab in Western Sahara
NVI has been helping on the WS issue for 3 decades. Mubarak Awad and Jonathan Kuttab are some of the few Palestinians and Americans who have gone and done solidarity work with them in the occupied territory.
Michael Beer co-wrote a critical article (Michael Beer's Op-Ed Calling for an End to the Conflict in Western Sahara) encouraging the US Government to change it policies towards Western Sahara.
Nonviolence International supports international law and opposes the unlawful and violent occupations of its neighbors by Israel, Morocco and Russia.
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