Gender, Nationalism and Revolution in Western Sahara: Women’s Participation in the Polisario State-Movement

Abstract

This paper explores the intersections of gender, nationalism and revolution by analysing the Polisario Front’s ideology, gender dynamics, women’s legal and constitutional rights, political engagement, sexual division of labour and the women’s rights movement. The analysis presented in this article is grounded in ethnographic and archival research conducted in the Saharawi refugee camps of Tindouf between 2017 and 2018. It argues that the emerging Saharawi feminism is an unintended consequence of the social revolution and conflict-induced migration.