LA TWIZA Y EL FEMINISMO DE LAS MUJERES SAHARAUIS EN LA NOVELA FLORES DE PAPEL (2025) DE EBBABA HAMEIDA

In her first novel, Flores de Papel (2025), Saharawi journalist Ebbaba Hameida delves into the importance of twiza in Saharawi society through the intergenerational narration of three female protagonists who represent the evolution of Saharawi feminism in the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara. Through autofiction and female perspectives, the personal and transterritorial experiences of the entire Saharawi people are told. Hybridizing the narrative with Italianisms and terms in Hassaniya, Hameida uses a tripartite narrative structure to give proper relevance to the role and value of women in Saharawi society both before and after the diaspora in the Algerian desert of the hammada. The novel recounts how women managed to reorganize society with limited resources, setting up an incipient state system within the refugee camps, distributing food and humanitarian aid, taking care of children's education, and training themselves to guarantee essential health services. The work carried out by Saharawi women, represented through unique narrative modes, is linked to the importance and value of twiza in the Saharawi refugee community. Furthermore, the text highlights and demonstrates how essential it has been to weave transnational relations between the refugee camps, Europe, and Latin America. It is no coincidence that Ebbaba Hameida represents an emblematic example of a professionally and personally committed woman and feminist who has developed a hybrid transcultural identity within her life journey.