EQUALSHOT

I wrote this entry for Huffington Post to call attention to my colleague, Aminatou Haidar, who is in the 3rd week of a hunger strike. Scroll to the end to take action & watch my Twitter account for updates. 

Say the words "hunger strike" and many will recall images of an
emaciated Mahatma Gandhi enduring several famous fasts to protest
British rule of India.

But most Americans are currently unaware of an ailing human rights
campaigner from Western Sahara now in the third week of a risky hunger
strike after being expelled from her occupied homeland by Moroccan
authorities.

A month ago, I had the good fortune of spending a week at the side
of the often called "Sahrawi Gandhi," Aminatou Haidar. Aminatou and I
share many things: we're both 42, we're both mothers of two young
children, we laugh at the same stories, and we both love the shrimp
dish at our hideaway DuPont Circle restaurant. We are, as Aminatou
says, like sisters.

And while we both call ourselves human rights activists, our day to
day work is conditioned entirely by our life experiences. A product of
the U.S., my brand of human rights activism is all but removed from the
day to day horrors of abusive regimes. I develop strategic campaigns
for human rights organizations and advocates like Aminatou, making sure
their issues are heard in the media and in the corridors of Capitol
Hill.

Aminatou, on the other hand, is in the thick of it. For over twenty
years, she has led the nonviolent struggle to free the people of
Western Sahara from Morocco's 34-year occupation. In 1988, both parties
agreed to settle the dispute through a UN-administered referendum that
would allow the people of Western Sahara to choose between independence
or integration with Morocco. The vote still has not been held, and UN
facilitated peace talks have stalled over disagreements, including who
qualifies to participate in the potential referendum.

During this time, Aminatou has spent nearly five years in prison for
her peaceful activism, much of it in solitary confinement undergoing
repeated torture. I have seen the pictures of Aminatou bloodied and
scarred.

As I write this on my laptop in a coffee shop in New York, Aminatou
is lying back against cushions on the floor of a waiting area in
Lanzarote airport, in Spain's Canary Islands, fading in and out of
wakefulness.

I am writing because Aminatou's life is literally in peril, and this
keyboard is, frustratingly, one of my only tools to bring attention to
my colleague and friend.

The details of her circumstance are straightforward. After Aminatou's visit to the U.S. to receive the 2009 Civil Courage Prize from the Train Foundation, she boarded a connecting flight in the Canary Islands to return home to her family in Laayoune,
the main city in the Moroccan occupied zone of Western Sahara. As she
had many times before, she declared Western Sahara as her country of
origin on the immigration entry form. This time, though, Moroccan
authorities seized her Moroccan passport (Morocco administers all
travel documents for Western Saharans), held her for interrogation, and
-- claiming she had renounced her Moroccan citizenship -- summarily
deported her to the Canary Islands. Spain allowed her entry against her
will and without travel documents, but insisted she could not travel
back to Laayoune because she had no passport.

It is a direct violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
signed by Morocco in 1979, for anyone to be arbitrarily deprived of the
right to enter his or her own country. According to a statement by the New York City Bar, this amounts to a breach of Morocco's international law obligations.

Now Aminatou is, in effect, stateless. She has refused an offer of a
Spanish passport, insisting that she will not be a "foreigner in her
own country." The Moroccan Government refuses to reinstate her passport
until she publicly apologizes for her "act of treason."

Hunger strikes are last resorts, never to be taken casually -
particularly if you have a perforated ulcer and the other residual
maladies Aminatou carries with her as a result of the years of
beatings. According to Wikipedia,
after three weeks of non-stop fasting, the body enters into "starvation
mode," at which point the body mines the muscles and vital organs for
energy, and loss of bone marrow becomes life-threatening.

Aminatou is prepared to take this hunger strike "to the death." When
I last managed to reach her by cell phone, she told me that her body
was failing, but her will was as strong as ever. Mostly, she was
preoccupied with the well-being of her children.

Pressure has mounted on Spain to resolve the situation, and
Aminatou's plight has ignited the attention of the media there.
Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar has led protests in her name and the actor
Guillermo "Willie" Toledo has set up a makeshift office in the airport
to be near her.

By stalling in this crisis, Morocco's standing in the international
community is called into question. The situation clearly undermines the
ongoing negotiations between Morocco and Western Sahara mediated by
U.N. Special Envoy Christopher Ross. And many policy watchers
have begun to ask how the U.S. should relate to a solid ally whose
human rights record is better than the norm in the region, but is now
heading in the wrong direction.

This week Senator Patrick Leahy called the situation "unacceptable"
and urged President Obama to defend those whose fundamental rights are
denied, wherever it occurs. Senator Russ Feingold and Representative
Donald Payne, chairmen of the Senate and House Subcommittees on Africa,
also expressed deep concern.

Hanging on the wall of my office is a quote from Archbishop Desmond
Tutu which reads, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you
have chosen the side of the oppressor."

Remaining silent or ambiguous for fear of damaging our long-standing
relations with Morocco is simply unconscionable. It is urgent for the
United States to help resolve this situation by asking Morocco to
return Aminatou's passport and allow her to return to her family. We
must be firm in asking Spain to intercede with Morocco to ensure her
safe return. It is also time for the U.S. to use its influence in the
United Nations to reaffirm support for the negotiations and the
long-overdue referendum on self-determination for the people of Western
Sahara. U.S. citizens should express their concern to their elected officials, as well as signing an open letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

People like Aminatou capture our imaginations and give us hope that
the path to peace -- wherever it may be -- is achievable through
non-violent measures. Simply put, we must ensure that one of the
world's rare role models lives to carry out her life's mission
surrounded by her family and her people.

Barbara Becker is principal of EqualShot. The views expressed in this piece are solely her own and are, in no way, meant to reflect the opinions of her clients.