Below is an article published by UNPO:

On the occasion of protests that IRA organized on Saturday 25 August 2012 in Mauritania asking for the release of its President Biram Ould Abeid and six other activists, the BBC World Service hosted the Vice-President of IRA, Brahim Bilal Ebeid, Africa Programme Coordinator of Anti-Slavery International, Sarah Mathewson, and Michelle Faul from the Associated Press, in order to shed more light on the continuing practise of slavery that is still alive and well in Mauritania.  The following article references comments made in the course of the BBC Weekend programme broadcast on 26 August 2012:

”My mom was given by a woman to another family...as a gift to the new baby. My mom was with that family as a slave. She got married and when we were born myself and my six other brothers we were working for that rich family; ...I believed that God created us for rich people, to be with them. God created us as slaves and created them as masters... they could sell us and they could do whatever they wanted with us” 

Said the Vice-President of IRA, Brahim Bilal Ebeid, during an elucidating interview he gave to the BBC Weekend Programme, revealing the well-rooted practise of slavery in Mauritania, and the prevalent mentality, based on constructed ¨Islamic rules¨ and subjective interpretations which were spread in Mauritania between the 12th and the 14th century.

Whilst slavery was abolished in Mauritania in 1981 and was criminalized in 2008, “that does not mean it has gone away. Some reports indeed say 20% of the country´s people live as slaves. Effectively belonging to others and earning nothing but the basic clothing and food”, Paul Henley from BBC World service commented.

It was only by accident that Brahim Bilad managed to escape from slavery when his mother had to send him to school “…they had to start a school and the government told them that they had to have fifteen boys... They had just 12 and they sent three of us, slaves, to complete the school...”

Subsequently, both Brahim Bilal and Sarah Mathewson from Anti-Slavery International explained that slavery still exists due to the government’s clear unwillingness to put an end to it. “They don’t do anything against slavery; they are against us, the activists, not against the masters” said Brahim Bilal, while Sarah Mathewson added “It is astonishing that the crackdown is against the anti-slavery activists rather than against the slave owners”. Afterwards, Michelle Faul from Associated Press Africa explained that the abolition of slavery in practise meant the abolition of the respective vocabulary.

Note:  The above statements reflect upon the reasons for which seven anti-slavery activists remain imprisoned without trial for over 100 days in Nouakchott, with the human rights Defender Biram Ould Abeid even facing capital punishment after burning pages of Malikite theological books, according to which slavery is encompassed by the Islamic faith.

To download the interview click here. (Mp4 Format, MB)

For further information regarding the case of Biram Ould Abeid, click here.