Editing Western Sahara (section)

=== Gender relations ===
[[File:Urgencias campamentos refugiados saharauis.jpg|thumb|upright|Two women outside a hospital emergencies at a Sahrawi refugee camps]]
Much Spanish literature and recent refugee studies scholarship has been dedicated to the exploration of the major role women play in Sahrawi society, and the degree of freedom they experience within the occupied territory and the refugee camps. There is a consensus among Sahrawi women that they have always enjoyed a large degree of freedom and influence within the Sahrawi community.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Juliano|first=Dolores |author-link=María Dolores Juliano |title=La causa Saharaui y las mujeres: "siempre hemos sido muy libres"|publisher=Icaria Editorial|year=1998}}</ref>

Traditionally, women have played pivotal roles in Sahrawi culture, as well as in efforts to resist colonialism and foreign interference in their territory.<ref name="Lippert 636–651">{{Cite journal |last=Lippert|first= Anne|date=Spring 1992|title= Sahrawi Women in the Liberation Struggle of the Sahrawi People|jstor= 3174626|journal= Journal of Women in Culture and Society|publisher= The University of Chicago Press|volume= 17|issue= 3|pages= 636–651|doi=10.1086/494752|s2cid= 144819149}}</ref> Similar to other nomadic traditions on the African continent, Sahrawi women traditionally exercised significant power and roles both in the camp and in their tents.

Sahrawi women could inherit property, and subsist independently from their fathers, brothers, husbands, and other male relatives.<ref name="Lippert 636–651" /> Women were key for establishing alliances through marriage, being that the Sahrawi culture values monogamy, with their tribe and to others.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mohsen|first= Safia|date=Fall 1967|title= Legal Status of Women among the Awad'Ali'|publisher= Institute for Ethnographic Research|volume= 40|issue= 3|pages= 153–66}}</ref> Furthermore, Sahrawi women were endowed with major responsibility for the camp during long periods of absence by the men of the camp due to war or trade. Among the responsibilities women had were setting up, repairing, and moving the tents of the camp, and participating in major tribal decisions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=de Chassey|first=Francis|title=L'etrier, la houe et le livre, societés traditionnelles au Sahara et au Sahel Occidental|journal=[[Archives de sciences sociales des religions]]|publisher=Editions Anthropos|year=1977|volume=48|issue=2|pages=267–268|url=http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0335-5985_1979_num_48_2_2199_t1_0267_0000_3}}</ref>

In the contemporary history of Western Sahara, women have occupied central roles and been highly represented in the political sphere.<ref name="López Belloso 159–76">{{Cite journal |last1=López Belloso|first1= María|last2= Mendia Azkue|first2= Irantzu|date= December 2009|title= Local Human Development in contexts of permanent crisis: Women's experiences in Western Sahara|journal= Journal of Disaster Risk Studies|publisher= JAMBA|volume= 2|issue= 3|pages= 159–76|doi=10.4102/jamba.v2i3.24|doi-access= free}}</ref> During Spanish colonial rule, Sahrawi women actively provided financial and physical support to the resistance movements during the 1930s, 1950s, and the late 1960s.<ref name="Lippert 636–651" /> In more official ways, women were consistently part of the Polisario Front, which in 1994 created the National Union of Sahrawi Women (NUSW).<ref name="López Belloso 159–76" /> The NUSW was structured at the local, regional, and national levels and concentrated on four areas: the occupied territories and emigration, information and culture, political and professional development, and foreign affairs.<ref name="López Belloso 159–76" />