A WORLD WHERE MUSLIM WOMEN WEAR THE PANTS
By Rod Usher

February 1, 1999 – (TIME) Saharawi women stand behind their men only in the figurative sense--they are among the most liberated Muslim women in the world. They don't veil their faces, they wear make-up, they sit in their parliament-in-exile, and they provide 90% of the local councilors who run the refugee camps in the Algerian desert. Male Saharawi leaders say Iran and other Muslim countries have begun to complain about the Saharawi women's status.

Mariam Hmada, who runs a training center for women in one of the refugee camps, explains that when the Saharawi men were away fighting "there was no one but us to run things. We are aware that in other national struggles women played a very important role, then lost it after independence. But while we know we are Muslim, Arab, Third World women, we are not going to let anyone, inside or outside, use this as a stick against us." Asked if women will be able to keep their role in an independent Western Saharan nation, Mustafa Mohamed-Ali, governor of one of the refugee areas, says: "The question is more whether men will be allowed to have a role!"

Hmada, mother of a 14-year-old daughter and two younger boys, says religion should not be used to oppress women but should be "like a dress. Islam is like the dress we wear, it is very large." She says of the Polisario leadership's support, "So far we don't know if it's because they need us right now, or if it's from their own deep conviction. Either way, it's too late to change our role. It's going to be impossible to bring us back to the kitchen."Hmada stresses she's not anti-male. "We wear make-up to attract them," she says. "But this has to go together with justice. In some aspects the Saharawi woman is closer to the European woman than to the Arab one." Most of the women in the camps have now been through the school she runs, learning to be teachers, nurses and administrators. She would like to have computers, but doesn't even have enough tables and chairs. Asked what her husband thinks of her views, Mariam Hmada smiles and says: "Ex-husband."

From: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/intl/article/0,9171,1107990201-20403,00.html