The martyr Saïda Menebhi, a Moroccan communist activist, was born in 1952. She began her involvement in the struggle in the ranks of the National Union of Moroccan Students, before joining the Marxist-Leninist organization “Forward”, which operated in secret due to the dictatorial nature of the Moroccan regime. Saida was also a field activist through her continuous struggle in the teachers’ union. The martyr is also a poet who left behind many poems that reflect her dream of a free homeland where dignity and rights prevail, and a people who decide their own destiny and control their own wealth.
As part of her revolutionary political struggle, the martyr Saïda Menebhi – along with many of the organization’s activists – was kidnapped and detained in a secret detention center in Casablanca. She was kidnapped with three other activists from the same organization on January 16, 1976, and taken to the same detention center known as “Derb Moulay Cherif”, where they stayed for three months, during which they were subjected to the most heinous forms of physical and psychological torture. They were then transferred to the civil prison in Casablanca, where they and their comrades were brought to trial.
Saïda Menebhi was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “involvement in activities hostile to the state”, in addition to two years on charges of insulting the sitting judiciary. During her trial, she did not hesitate to defend her political positions opposing the ruling regime. Saïda went on several hunger strikes, from which she emerged unscathed, before she and her comrades went on an unlimited hunger strike on November 8, 1977, in order to force their recognition as political prisoners and also to improve their prison conditions and break their isolation.
On the thirty-fourth day of the strike, on December 11, 1977 to be exact, Saïda was transferred to the hospital after her health deteriorated, where she passed away in the prime of her life, at the age of no more than 25 years. The deliberate medical negligence she was subjected to was a contributing factor in her death.
Saïda Menebhi used to say to her mother during her visit to prison: “Despite all the barriers imposed, I am here, mother, for the sake of a decent life for my people. My morale is always high. The future belongs to the victims of class oppression and political tyranny. I am not afraid of oppression. I believe in my cause, the cause of all the masses.” Saïda’s martyrdom created a political uproar in the country, forcing the regime to respond to the demands of the political prisoners on hunger strike, improve their detention conditions and lift the siege on them.
Daydream
You know my child
I wrote a poem for you
but don’t chastise me
for writing it is this language
that you don’t yet understand
it’s nothing my child
when you are older
you will seize this dream
that I dreamt in the middle of the day
when it’s your turn, you will tell the story of this woman
Arab prisoner
in her own country
Arab up to her white hair
her greenish eyes
the dream my child
begins
when I see a pigeon
the birds that build their nests
on the roofs of prisons
I dream of sending a message to the revolutionaries
of Palestine
in order to assure them support for victory
I dream of having wings
just like sparrows
to traverse the skies
as far as Erythrea
as far as Dhofar
arms heavy with guns
the head with poems
I want to be a passenger
on board clouds
with my war attire
combating Pinochet
in the back country of Chile
so that my blood runs
on Chilean soil
that Neruda praised
o my dream
red Africa
without hungry children
I dream
that the moon
up there is going to fall
to take out the enemy
and that the moon will leave me
in Palestine or in the Sahara
anywhere
I struggle for victory
For all people who are combatants.
