Elkouria «Rabab» Amidane (b. September 29, 1985) is a Sahrawi

Sahrawi

Most frequently in English language usage, the term Sahrawi is usually used in reference to populations from the disputed Western Sahara territory, sometimes with a nationalist connotation....

 student

Student

A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...

 and human rights activist. Elkouria Amidane has over the years conducted non-violent struggle for Western Sahara self-determination and demonstrated for Saharawi student's rights.

Early life

Amidane went to primary school in her hometown of El Aaiun

El Aaiún

El-Aaiún , is a city in Western Sahara founded by the Spanish in 1928. Administered by Morocco since 1976, El-Aaiún is the capital of what the Moroccan government call the region of Laâyoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra, and POLISARIO call Occupied Territories...

, where all the professors were Moroccan, and usually tease her and other Sahrawi children for speaking Hassaniya

Hassaniya

Hassānīya is the variety of Arabic originally spoken by the Beni Hassān Bedouin tribes, who extended their authority over most of Mauritania and the Western Sahara between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. It has almost completely replaced the Berber languages spoken in this region...

 or other Sahrawi distinctive features. She states that she never had seen a Sahrawi

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a partially recognised state that claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. SADR was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on February 27, 1976, in Bir Lehlu, Western Sahara. The SADR government controls about...

 flag until the Independence Intifada

Independence Intifada

The Independence Intifada is a Saharawi Polisario activist coinage for a series of disturbances, demonstrations and riots that broke out in May 2005 in the Moroccan-held parts of Western Sahara. This event has also been called "The El-Aaiun Intifada" by the same sources...

 in 2005.

Involvement in human rights defense

In 2006, her brother El Uali Amidane was arrested by the Moroccan police after a peaceful demonstration. He was sentenced to 5 years of prison.

Amidane aims to tell the world about Moroccan mistreatment of the Saharawi people. With help from the human rights organization CODESA she spread videos or photos documenting Moroccan human rights violations on the Sahrawi population, that had been used by NGO's like Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

. Both Amidane and her family has been imprisoned and tortured due to their political activism.

On February 4, 2009 Elkouria Amidane was awarded the Student Peace Prize

Student Peace Prize

The Student Peace Prize is awarded biennially to a student or a student organization that has made a significant contribution to creating peace and promoting human rights...

 for her work for human rights and the Saharawi people. She currently resides in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, because of the danger of returning to Western Sahara.