Regularly referred to as the "Sahrawi Gandhi," Haidar is a courageous advocate for Western Sahara’s independence from Morocco, and against "disappearances" and abuses of prisoners of conscience.

Haidar is a Sahrawi leader working through non-violent means for a referendum to settle the extended conflict between the Moroccan military and Sahrawi independence groups.

In 1976, the International Court of Justice rejected Morocco's claims of sovereignty in Western Sahara. In 1988, the Kingdom of Morocco and Sahrawi independence groups agreed to settle the dispute through a United Nations-administered referendum, which has never been held. In 2007, the United Nations began to facilitate peace talks, but they stalled over disagreements, including whether full independence is an option for Sahrawis.

Haidar has traveled the globe to expose the Moroccan military's heavy-handed military control of Western Sahara and to plead for the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination. Her efforts helped change the Moroccan government's violent tactics for dispersing pro-independence demonstrations. However, the torture and harassment of Sahrawi human rights defenders continues.

She has been imprisoned twice. In 1987, at the age of 21, Haidar was one of 700 peaceful protestors arrested for participating in a rally in support of a referendum. Later she was "disappeared" without charge or trial and held in a secret detention center for four years, where she and 17 other Sahrawi women were tortured. In 2005, the Moroccan police detained her for seven months after a peaceful demonstration.

Haidar has been awarded the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the 2007 Silver Rose Award (Austria), and the 2006 Juan Maria Bandres Human Rights Award (Spain). She was nominated by the European Parliament for the Andrei Sakharov Human Rights Award. Amnesty International USA nominated her for the Ginetta Sagan Fund Award. She was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.