Born in 1965 in El Aaiun, in the part of Western Sahara controlled by Morocco, where he operated an Internet café[2] which he had to close due to Moroccan government harassment.

The committee for the Per Anger Prize described the event as "the first step towards organising and coordinating human rights activists in Western Sahara.

[6] In March 2010, he and five of the other activists began a month-long hunger strike in protest of being imprisoned without trial, causing doctors to express concern for their safety.

The defendants responded that they had taken money only for travel expenses and had gone to Algeria "for humanitarian and purely human rights reasons.

Dahane and fellow detainees Ali Salem Tamek and Ahmed Nasiri were freed on 23 April 2011, just before they were set to begin another hunger strike to protest the conditions of their imprisonment.

He was awarded "in recognition of having demonstrated unwavering personal courage, employed peaceful means and risked his life in the struggle for human rights during the conflict between Morocco and the POLISARIO over Western Sahara".

[1] As he was imprisoned by the Moroccan regime, his sister Aicha Dahane had to travel to Sweden to accept the award on behalf of her brother.