Partners for Democratic Change – “An Update from Bahrain”

POMED Notes: Maryam al-Khawaja – An Update on Bahrain

Notes on the event are located below the break, or can be accessed in PDF form here

On Monday Partners for Democratic Change hosted the Society for International Development, Washington’s Middle East Workgroup for a monthly brown bag lunch entitled “An Update from Bahrain with Bahraini Human Rights Activist, Maryam al-Khawaja.” Monalisa Salib, Senior Manager, Partners for Democratic Change opened the event. Cole Bockenfeld, Advocacy Director for the Project on Middle East Democracy provided background information on events in Bahrain and introduced Maryam al-Khawaja.

Al-Khawaja is the Director of External Relations for the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and a former Fulbright Scholar at Brown University. Al-Khawaja was present during the beginning of the February 14th uprising, as protesters demanded democratic reforms, and witnessed a government response that included excessive use of force, widespread arrest, discrimination, and scare tactics to suppress dissent and quell voices for reform. She is also the daughter of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, the founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, who was among a group of high-profile human rights activists and opposition leaders recently sentenced to life imprisonment. Although she left Bahrain in early March and has not been able to go back in order to avoid arrest and/or imprisonment, she remains very connected to events on the ground as an advocate and has emerged as a leading voice for human rights. She has been influential in shaping official responses to the atrocities in Bahrain around the world by engaging with prominent European and American policymakers in her advocacy efforts.

Maryam al-Khawaja began her remarks discussing the deep roots of the protests that are currently taking place. There have been anti-government protests in Bahrain occurring nearly every 10 years, for the past century. The current protests began on February 14 and eventually included 250,000 – 300,000 protesters out of a nation of 500,000 citizens. These protests were started by youth, which is different than any other previous protests usually started by political or religious leaders, yet the government’s response has been the same every time. On March 15, after days of the Bahraini security forces violently repressing the protests, the regime invited Saudi Arabian/Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) forces into Bahrain. Al-Khawaja described systematic mass human rights violations including torture, imprisonment, attacks on homes while people are sleeping, and teargas being shot into homes. …more