Bahrain is not a good place to be a pro-democracy activist. Since the Arab Spring protests of 2011, it has seen considerable political instability, with protests – led by Shia Muslims, who make up a majority of the population – met with violent repression by the state. In 2012, the government announced a programme of reform, but in practice, repression has continued. Amnesty International commented in January that the regime had “long ago reneged on promises to reform, and the country is now trapped in an endless circuit of protest-clampdown, further protest-further clampdown…., [with] protesters - including children - given very long prison sentences".
This dire state of affairs for human rights activists has again been highlighted, after Maryam al-Khawaja, a prominent activist and critic of the royal family, was arrested at Bahrain International Airport on 30 August. Living overseas for several years (she holds dual citizenship with Denmark), Maryam was visiting her father, the jailed dissident Abdullahi Abdulla Hubail al-Khawaja. In custody since 2011, he is on hunger strike to protest his unjust detention. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention classes his detention as arbitrary. According to Maryam’s lawyer, she was “stripped of her nationality” and prosecutors plan to charge her with insulting the king and assaulting police officers. She will also face charges over her involvement with the rights campaign, Wanted for Justice. Maryam’s sister Zainab was recently released after serving a year in prison for insulting police and taking part in illegal gatherings.
The situation in Bahrain has received little airtime in the western media, at least partly because of its strategic importance given its close ties to Saudi Arabia, an ally of the west.
As Nicholas McGeehan of Human Rights Watch argues, Bahrain’s allies share some responsibility:
"Bahrain’s western allies bear significant responsibility for the worsening situation in Bahrain and for the calamitous circumstances facing activists in the country, including Zainab, Maryam and Abdulhadi. Had the UK, the US or the EU exerted real pressure for Abdulhadi al-Khawaja’s release and the release of other high-profile dissidents whose only “crime” has been to call for political reform in the country, Abdulhadi might not be on hunger strike, and his daughter might not be in Isa Town prison awaiting a hearing to decide her fate.
"Instead, Bahrain’s allies have opted for a disastrous policy of appeasement and acquiescence, and they have remained largely silent in the face of human rights violations that they would loudly denounce were they taking place in a less strategically important country."
