State oppression versus struggle for freedom
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.” Martin Luther King Jr said in his speech in Memphis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968.
Abdulhadi Abdulla Hubail Alkhawaja, the prominent Bahraini human rights activist, who now enters day 19 of his hunger strike against the regime of Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, continues to make Luther King Jr proud. Alkhawaja is serving a life sentence for having refused to bend his back.
The painful act of protest is not voluntary, some say. His jaws have been broken during custody: he can’t chew. IV tubes, used to deliver fluid into a patient’s body, have stopped working: his veins have shrunk due to weakness, according to his doctor.
While propagators of free speech and democracy stand by silently and watch, Alkhawja and 6 fellow humans, who stood up against oppression, continue to suffer. Why?
It all started on February 14, 2011. Buoyed by the success in Egypt and Tunisia, Bahrainis gathered at the Pearl Square in Manama. They wanted a constitutional monarchy in Bahrain, where people could choose their representatives. Irrespective of religion, sect or race, Bahrain stood united. Almost 80-85 percent of employees in Bahrain went on strike on February 20.
Their demands were rebuffed; dozens of protestors were shot dead at point blank range, thousands captured and tortured. Houses of the opposition leaders were raided at night without warrants, their women made to stand in night clothing. People were ridiculed at checkpoints for their religious believes. Doctors who had treated the injured protesters at Manama’s Sulaimaniya Medical Complex were jailed, threatened and tortured for treating the wounded. Forces of the state persecuted the injured on their hospital beds, all behind closed doors, far from the eye of the media.
State propaganda went into an overdrive: what was an uprising against tyranny and injustice was turned into a sectarian conflict. Western PR mercenaries, funded by the state, were hired to carry out the dirty work on social media. Fake accounts on social platforms were created that labeled the people of Bahrain as terrorists. Muslims were pitted against one another. And sadly, it worked; it always has.
Bahrain state television played its part. The protestors were branded terrorists and enemies of the state, bounties announced for anyone who brought in intelligence. The initial wave of opposition was brutally crushed. Men in power, heading states and regimes, watched while their bank accounts continued to roll in with petro-dollars.
Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry was initiated by the king under increasing pressure from human rights organisations. Or, maybe it was a shameless act of tokenism.
Nevertheless, the government of Bahrain was found guilty on all of the following accounts:
1) Violation of human rights, which includes: use of force by government actors, manner of arrests, treatment of persons in custody, prosecution for expression and association and assembly, enforced disappearances.
2) Other human rights issues: demolition of religious structures, treatment of public and private sector employment, dismissals of students and suspensions of scholarships.
Atrocities committed are beyond the scope of a single article. Perpetrators of the aforementioned violations remain at large. In stark contrast, medics in Bahrain now treat injured protestors underground. Dead bodies of teenagers continue to appear and activists continue to be harassed with tear gas grenades being fired into their homes.
Bahrain has been left helpless by the world media, its attention now firmly focused on neighbouring Syria. The king of Bahrain openly calls for Syria’s Bashar al-Assad to listen to his men, to stop torturing and killing his own people. How cruel is irony?
United States of Arabia and Saudi Arabia take turns in taking each other to bed; in the issue of Bahrain, the Saudis lulled NATO and its master, the US, to royal beds, littered with crumbled Saudi Riyals. No attention will be spared. Saudis will continue to forcefully ‘preach’ and spread their brand of Islam and Hamad will continue to be a puppet dancing on Arabian tunes. Meanwhile, dollars continue to roll in.
While the Pearl roundabout – the sign of hope and freedom – has long been destroyed, hope prevails. Bahrain continues to shout in the dark, hoping against hope to be heard. But they will not give up. Brave men like Alkhawaja will give their lives to fuel the cause; the people have woken up, they have nothing more to fear.
Jim Morrison once said, “Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”
Bahrain is free.
The writer is an IBA graduate and freelance journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]
cheesa
All is fair in war and khilafat, so long as it's considered kosher by the dictator. The uprising in Bahrain has thus far been branded as a sectarian outburst – if only people could sniff propaganda!
Good stuff here bro
You forgot to mention Pakistani mercenaries who killed injured protesters in prison!
I’ll ask you one simple question, did u witness everything you wrote above? I am also a Pakistani and was at Al Farooq Junction(also known as Pearl Roundabout) when this all started to happen. I still live here and witness these terrorsit terrorising the general public each and everyday. Do you know these people got there finances from iran and hizbullah! Do you also know that these people brutally killed urarmed policemen by running over them. Do you know how much ecnomically they have made Bahrain lose since it all started more than an year ago. People like you who relie on not even second but third or fourth hand sources. Just open google and search the protesters images when they were at Al Farooq Junction, they wanted better living and yet they have free homes provided by government, they wanted higher salaries and yet they own iphones, professional cammeras,laptops latest cars. Please stop misleading people with your unauthentic articles. Don’t make fool out of yourself as people who live here or have seen these wild and stupid terriosts very well know what’s going here. And yea one more thing please correct your census as only 30% went on strike. Also Bahrain is united but against such protesters or terriost what they really are.
Boohoo! All information was extracted from Report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry – http://www.bici.org.bh/ I suggest you give it a read, too. For me you are a third grade source. Read the report and try to git rid of your biases. Your arguments and accusations are childishly embarrassing.
A moving article that sums up the situation. Hope prevails!
Calling Syria a neighbor of Bahrain and brushing aside the independent judicial commission as an act of tokenism goes on to show your ignorance of the region. Where are you getting your lessons in current affairs from? Your Maulana? True there is a genuine movement for democracy here but the state is not answering with repression but rather with restraint. Dialogue with the main opposition party has been initiated and things are going towards resolution. It gets very irritating when business school graduates like yourself try to pull it off as political commentators. Needless to say that the result is falling flat on your face.
"State is not answering with repression but rather with restraint." I suggest you read Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report before passing such statements. I brand the commission as an act of tokenism because no valuable suggestion has been implemented yet by the GoB. As for dialogue with main opposition party, it's been going on ever since the movement started. Where are the results?
Secondly, neighboring Syria was used to refer to the region, it was never meant literally. Also, business school graduates can't comment on politics or freedom movements?
I did my research before writing his article; no maulana was consulted.
Sorry, I should have put my spectacles on before voting this; I clicked the wrong button! So this should be a thumbs up.
Hey aSkari bahrain police is all abt ur pak ppl &u forgot abt the innocent ppl &polie killed by thse peaceful protesters
once upon a time there were people who used to talk about people and how their lives were formed around things that went around them…that was a good time when people had the right to free speech…which fundamentally means ability to share ur opinions with your fellows without the harassment of others…the problem in bahrain is similar to what has been happening for the past centuries…speak up and u forfeit ur right to speak again…people need to speak up and share their views as criticism allows u to be better than ur present…shamelessly we continue to fall on that road the abhors this quintessential need in one's life…
just my 2 cents
bara maza aya parh kay 😀
Hahahaha.. it clearly shows shia peoples supports this article and iran and sunni peoples against this article… 🙂
Really you have unviel the atrocities of Bahrain s kingdom
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