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