Wilayah

A wilayah (ولاية in Arabic) or velâyat (ولایت in Persian), vilayet in Turkish or vilayat in Urdu), is an administrative division, usually translated as "province", or occasionally as "governorate". The word comes from the Arabic "w-l-y", "to govern": a wāli—"governor"—governs a wilayah, "that which is governed". Under the Caliphate, the term referred to any constituent near-sovereign state.

Use in specific countries

In Arabic, wilayah is used to refer to the states of the United States, and the United States of America as a whole is called "الولايات المتّحدة الأمريكية" (al-Wilāyāt al-Muttaḥidah al-Amrīkīyah) literally meaning "the American United States".

North Africa and Middle East

For Morocco which is divided into provinces and wilāyas the translation "province" would cause the distinction to cease. For Sudan the term state, and for Mauritania the term region is used.

The governorates of Iraq (muhafazah) are sometimes translated as province, in contrast to official Iraqi documents and the general use for other Arab countries. This conflicts somehow with the general translation for muhafazah (governorate) and wilāyah (province).

Wilaya (film)

Wilaya (Arabic: ولاية‎, also known as Tears of Sand) is a 2011 Spanish film directed by Pedro Pérez Rosado. The film is a minimalist drama about a Sahrawi refugee family suddenly confronted with the death of the mother and the return of the younger sister, who had lived most of her life in Spain, reflecting the separation of many Sahrawi families.

Plot

Fatimetu is a Sahrawi girl who returned for the burial of her mother to the Sahrawi refugee camps, after 16 years living in Spain. Her older brother Jatri announced Fatimetu that her mothers last will was that she had inherited the familiar jaima (tent) and the responsibility of taking care of her sister Hayat, who is handicapped. Fatimetu accepted reluctantly the responsibility, as she barely can take care of herself. She bought an old pickup truck and find work transporting goods between the camps (wilayas), but Fatimetu is torn between life in the desert and the memories of her foster family and friends in Spain. Wilaya is the story of two sisters who come together after spending 16 years separated by two different cultures who will have to adapt to survive and find their own identities.