Salah El-Ouadie (also spelled Salah ed-Dine El-Ouadie; Arabic: صلاح الدين الوديع; born 1952) is a Moroccan poet, novelist, and human rights activist. He is the president and founder of the human rights organization Damir.
Biography
El-Ouadie was born in August 1952, either in Asfi or Rabat, Morocco. He earned a degree in philosophy in 1982, followed by a degree in political science from Montpellier in 1987.
During the "Years of Lead" under King Hassan II, he was imprisoned at the secret Derb Moulay Cherif Prison in Hay Mohammadi, Casablanca. He was detained from 1974 to 1984 after joining the clandestine 23rd of March opposition movement, receiving a 22-year sentence in 1977 for leftist activism.
Human Rights Work
El-Ouadie co-founded the Moroccan Organization for Human Rights (OMDH) in 1988 and the Moroccan Forum for Truth and Justice in 1999. He served as a member of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER), which investigated human rights abuses during the Years of Lead. In accordance with the Commission's policy of addressing victims' hardships without publicly naming aggressors, he did not publicly identify his torturer but addressed him in a famous open letter, Lettre ouverte à mon tortionnaire.
He entered parliamentary and local elections as a leftist candidate, though without electoral success. In 2008, he joined the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), resigning several years later.
Career
In 1997, he became a professor at the Upper School of Management and Entrepreneurship in Casablanca. He also organized and presented the television program Moment of Poetry (لحظة شعر) on the 2M TV channel from 2000 to 2002.
He received an honor from King Mohammed VI on behalf of his late sister, Judge Assia El-Ouadie, a noted human rights activist.
Selected Works
- The Wound of the Bare Chest (جراح الصدر العاري), 1985
- There is Still Something in the Heart Worth of Attention (مازال في القلب شيء يستحق الانتباه), 1988
- The Groom (العريس), a novel, 1998
