The Ideal Refugees: Gender, Islam, and the Sahrawi Politics of Survival

Glossary of Key Arabic and Spanish Terms

273 Glossary of Key Arabic and Spanish Terms Ahl al-Kitāb: People of the Book Ait Arbein: Hassaniya term commonly referred to in English as the “Council of Forty.” This supratribal confederation existed prior to and during the colonial era and drew together leaders from the forty tribes to take decisions affecting all of the forty “families.” Ait is a Berber word meaning “family” or “tribe.” Ajnabī (m. sing.) or ajnabiyya (fem. sing): Foreigner. Arabañol: Neologism used by Cuban-educated Sahrawi youth to refer to the hybridized language formed by combining Arabic and Spanish (Árabe + Español = Arabañol). Bādiya: Literally meaning “desert” in standard Arabic, this term is usually used to refer to the territories of the Western Sahara that are not under Moroccan control, also referred to as the Liberated Territories. Al-bādiya is described as being a cooler and healthier place to live than the refugee camps, with many refugee families moving there in the summer months or sporadically throughout the year. It is estimated that several thousand Sahrawi nomads may live there permanently, herding their camels and goats in the area. It is a densely land-mined territory, leading to frequent, and often fatal, landmine accidents. Bulūgh: Foodstuff given to young women during the precolonial and colonial periods to “fatten them up.” According to Cheikh, in Hassaniya Arabic this refers to “dates that are cut and exposed to the sun to make them mature more quickly” (quoted in Popenoe 2004). The root of the word, however, is balagha, meaning “to attain puberty,” or “to become marriageable, pubescent.” It is, therefore, a foodstuff specifically given to girls to expedite their puberty. Dā’ira, pl. dawā’ir: District. The Sahrawi refugee camps are divided into four wilayāt (provinces), which are in turn subdivided into dawā’ir (districts). The 274 | glossary dawā’ir are at present the units of administration for the refugee camps and are intended to become the SADR’s regional and local administrative units when/if an independent Western Sahara is achieved. Eid: A seasonal Islamic festival, such as Eid al-Fitr (also known as Eid al-S ˙ aghīr) and Eid al-Ad ˙ h ˙ a (commonly referred to Eid al-Kabīr). Fitna: Temptation or its related chaos. Frīg, pl. firgān: This Hassaniya Arabic term literally means “group” or “team” and generally refers to a group of people or gathering and is not limited to nomadic contexts. In this case, however, the term refers to the nomadic groups that lived in the territory during the precolonial and colonial times. Each frīg was composed of a number of khiyām (tents), which in turn were normally each run by a married couple and their children and sometimes included members of their extended family. The firgān would undertake seasonal movements along predetermined routes, stopping in small settlements throughout their movements, as well as staying in the bādiya (the more remote desert areas) for extended periods of time. In Modern Standard Arabic , the singular term would be transliterated as farīq and the plural as afriqā’ or furūq. An alternative singular is firqa and its respective plural is firaq. Fus ˙ h ˙ ā: Modern Standard Arabic. Al-gaws: “The arch” (Modern Standard Arabic: al-qaws). This is the colloquial Hassaniya Arabic term used to refer to the archway marking the entrance to the precinct of the National Women’s School, where both the school’s and camp’s idāra (administration) but also the majority of NGO projects are based. Gueton: Nomadic family tent traditionally made of camel hair. Those currently in use in the refugee camps are usually provided by the UNHCR/ECHO and are made of plastic sheeting. Unlike the term khayma, the word gueton is not used to refer to adobe or cement structures, only tents. This is the spelling commonly used in Spanish. H ˙ ay, pl. ah ˙ yā’: Each “district” in the refugee camps is subdivided into subdistricts or, according to the Spanish term used in the camps (barrios), neighborhoods. Hassaniya: Arabic dialect spoken by the Sahrawi and the Maure/Moorish peoples of Northern Mauritania. Idāra: Administration Al-‘idda: The obligatory time (three menstrual periods) that must pass according to the Qur’an from the declaration of the divorce until a woman may remarry (sura 2:228). From the Arabic verb ‘adda, “to count.” Glossary | 275 Al-ih ˙ tifāl...