El Aaiún (Occupied Territories), 1 Nov 2015 (SPS) Sahrawi high school teacher and Equipe Media‘s coordinator Mohamed Mayara will begin an open strike on Monday, in front of the educational local authorities in the occupied city of El Aaiún .
In a public statement Mayara said that the education authorities suspended his salary last September while waiting for his appearance before a disciplinary board alleging that he refused to teach.
Further explaining the strike, the Saharawi journalist listed several reasons in the statement, among them, the arbitrary decision of suspending his salary on the grounds of his media and human rights activities.
In April he accompanied the Endowed Chair in the Study of Nonviolent Direct Action and Civil Resistance Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Stellan Vinthagen during a visit to occupied El Aaiún.
In July he accompanied freelance journalist Karlos Zurututa who accessed the territories as a tourist.
Mayara is married, has a six-year-old daughter and he was expelled from a former job as a civil servant in 2007 after he participated in the 6th Human Rights Council session in Geneva
“Depriving Saharawi people from their jobs and income is a method used by the Moroccan authorities to humiliate Saharawis and try to silence us,” said Mayara in his statement. (SPS)
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