SULTANA
KHAYA

Editorial update · 13 May 2026 — Khaya was held under arbitrary house arrest from November 2020 until early 2022, during which she was repeatedly subjected to violent physical and sexual assaults by members of the Moroccan security forces. As of September 2022, no investigation into the abuse had been opened. She remains under sustained harassment in occupied Western Sahara.

Background and Work

Sultana Khaya is President of the League for the Defense of Human Rights and against Plunder of Natural Resources, an organisation based in Boujdour, Western Sahara. Her work centres on promoting the right to self-determination for the Sahrawi people and defending the rights of Sahrawi women. She has participated regularly in peaceful demonstrations that call for self-determination and denounce violence against women in the territory.

Western Sahara remains a contested region. Morocco claims sovereignty over the territory, while the Polisario Front and many Sahrawis advocate for independence or a referendum on self-determination. Human rights defenders working on these issues face sustained repression, including surveillance, harassment, and violence.

House Arrest and Pattern of Attacks

Sultana Khaya has been under de facto house arrest since 19 November 2020. Moroccan security forces have maintained a heavy presence outside her home, preventing her from leaving and restricting access by visitors. During this confinement, she has been subjected to repeated physical and sexual violence.

On 10 May 2021, she was attacked at her home. On 25 August 2021, she was attacked again. Both incidents involved physical assault and harassment by security forces.

On 8 November 2021, at approximately 4:30 a.m., two buses carrying masked Moroccan security forces in plain clothes arrived outside her house. The officers used a construction crane to access the roof, then broke into the apartment she shares with her family. They did not present a warrant. The agents zip-tied Sultana's wrists behind her back, stripped her, and physically and sexually assaulted her and her sister, Luara Khaya. Sultana was forcibly injected with an unknown substance. The officers told her she would become sick and no longer able to protest. Her elderly mother was also physically and sexually assaulted. The attack lasted approximately two hours, ending around 6:30 a.m. The agents left after issuing death threats.

On 5 December 2021, at around 4:30 a.m., Moroccan agents broke into the house again. Sultana was sleeping in the same room as her sister, brother, and 84-year-old mother. All members of the household were zip-tied. The agents forced Sultana to inhale an unknown substance from a rag, causing her limbs to go numb. Over the following two hours, she and her sister were repeatedly gang-raped and beaten. Approximately fifteen minutes after the assault ended, Sultana was forcibly injected in her left hip. She subsequently lost sensation in her left side.

International Response

On 1 July 2021, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor condemned the reprisals against Sultana Khaya. She expressed particular concern about the apparent use of violence and the threat of violence to prevent and obstruct women human rights defenders in their peaceful activities in Western Sahara.

Despite this public condemnation, the attacks on Sultana and her family have continued. The pattern of sexual violence, forced injections, and sustained confinement constitutes a deliberate campaign of reprisal aimed at silencing her advocacy for Sahrawi self-determination and women's rights.