Shadia Marhaban

Who is Shadia Marhaban?

During the conflict between the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian government Shadia Marhaban worked as a journalist and a translator, most famously collaborating with journalist William Nessen on the documentary The Black Road in Aceh. In addition to her work as a journalist and a translator, Shadia Marhaban served as a coordinator at SIRA, an organization dedicated to galvanizing support for a popular referendum on Acehnese independence. In 2001, SIRA organized a peacefully rally in support of a referendum, with 2 million people attending in Banda Aceh. She also worked to build international support for Acehnese self-determination through her work with the peace movement “Moratorium on Dialogue”.

In 2003 she fled Indonesia and sought asylum as a political refugee. in the United States. There she continued to work supporting the possibility of a referendum on Acehnese independence. She was the only woman to actively participate in the GAM negotiating team at the 2005 peace negotiations in Finland, which ended the conflict in Aceh. Following the successful negotiation of the peace agreement she returned to Aceh from her exile in the United States, and joined a group of activists to form the Aceh Women’s League.