“Unveiling” Sahrawi Feminism: How Aid Workers Navigate Narratives of Gender Equality and Empowerment in the Tindouf Camps

Abstract

Operating in exile in the Tindouf camps for five decades, Polisario has woven together anti-colonial resistance, local identities, and humanitarian norms to meet local and international expectations. In doing so, Polisario tries to sustain support for camps that almost entirely rely on foreign aid, and fight for the ultimate goal of the liberation of Western Sahara. As part of this narrative, Sahrawi women are presented as strong, emancipated community leaders who manage aid and fight for the Sahrawi right to self-determination. This thesis examines how international aid workers interpret and shape this feminised discourse on Sahrawi women's involvement in aid distribution and socio-political life in the Tindouf camps between 2016 and 2020. Positioned between top-down international norm-making institutions and bottom-up local narrative creation, aid workers’ engagement with Sahrawi women and feminised narratives influences how gender roles are understood and enacted in the camps. Drawing on documents from international organisations, media representations, and interviews with key informants from major international NGOs, the thesis reconstructs the narrative production and discursive power relations between actors involved in the Sahrawi refugee crisis. By placing aid workers at the centre of the analysis, it shows how they understand and selectively reproduce the feminised discourse, what obstacles they face in their work with Sahrawi women, and how they navigate international norm implementation and local realities while respecting the public–private distinction surrounding gendered issues in the camps.