Mauritania's fiery singing senator
By Rose Skelton
BBC News, Nouakchott

Dressed in the colourful muslin veil that brightens up the harsh sandy streets of Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott, Malouma holds her traditional ardin, or harp, in one hand as she speaks rapid-fire Arabic into a mobile phone held in the other.

When she hangs up the phone, clearly annoyed, she explains that she has to go to a political meeting.

Despite being given only 10 minutes' notice, she says that if she does not turn up they will all agree that electing a woman, and a singer, to the senate was not a good idea.

And she is determined not to give them that chance.

Fierce criticism is something that Malouma, one of the country's most famous musicians and also one of its 56 senators, has had to fight against all her life. the rest photo