Bahrain Repression Targets Outspoken Women Activists who dare to Break The Silence

Bahrain: Targeting of active women by authorities because of the freedom of opinion and expression
June 2nd, 2011

Ms. AlKhawaja (Left) and Ms. Alqurmozi (Right)

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) expresses its deep concern about targeting Ms. AlKhawaja and Ms. Alqurmozi.

Ms.Ayat Alqurmozi – a 20 years old poet and student at the Faculty of Teachers, was arrested on Wednesday, March 30th 2011.

She was reading political poem- criticized government policy- in the Pearl Roundabout. ( Ref:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8-qOerX3xI )

According to information obtained by the BYSHR, That there are allegations of ill-treatment in custody and she was not informed by police about the trial.

Today ( 2 June, 2011), The first hearing session for Ms. Alqurmozi before a military court (National Safety court).

Ms. Zaynab Alkhawaja – a 27 years old Cyber Activist, better known as Angryarabiya on twitter.

Ms. AlKhawaja, inspired the recent mass hunger strike in Bahrain after going on hunger strike in support of her detained father and prominent human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja (former MENA Coordinator with Frontline Defenders and former President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights). Ms. Alkhawaja continued her strike for a period of 8 days until she was pressured to end the strike by international human rights organization.

Ms. Alkhawaja had previously written an open letter to President Obama calling for the US to take responsibility for what is happening in Bahrain and holding him responsible should anything happen to her father ( http://angryarabiya.blogspot.com ). Ms. Alkhawaja’s twitter account was very active after the February 14th unrest and has over 11 thousand followers. She was subjected to many threats and a smear campaign by pro-government tweeters. …source