State thuggery, assault and detention

Bahrain Special: Zainab Omran Tells Her Story of Detention at City Center Mall
October 7, 2011 – by AuthorScott Lucas – EA WorldView

Zainab Omran was one of 45 women detained at City Center Mall on 23 September as marchers tried to reach Pearl Roundabout, the symbolic centre of the protests against the Bahraini regime. This is the first part of her story:

We went out on Friday, Sept. 23. We did not know, “Where do we go?” We wanted to join any march to have a voice in the event.

One of my sisters suggested that we approach the City Centre becuase the route was still open and we arrived there at 2:30 pm.

We went up having only our phones in our hands and we sat waiting. Glimpsing the faces of many protesters, we exchanged smiles and greetings from a distance.

At exactly three o’clock we met and we agreed to get out of each group separately so as not to draw attention to us. I was communicating with one of the news pages and it told me they would be at the taxi gate.

We went to that point and we had parted from the rest of the groups when we got there. There were many foreigners, we were talking with foreigners and introducing them to the situation in Bahrain: we said it was not safe, as there are many dead, but we are willing to go out in a peaceful demonstration and that we will be immediately suppressed.

In the meantime, there was a tremendous amount of informers near us. And they knew from our faces that we areintending to demonstrate. Someone was watching us and brought a Bahrain TV cameraman in a bus to picture us. We saw him and screamed at him. Then one of the television broadcasters, along with a cameraman came to us. My uncle’s wife told him that he must record live to show the world that the situation in Bahrain is not safe.

And then the young people at 3:30 started to say, “Oh mighty God” and “Pray on the soul of Prophet Mohammed”. We also started to say this. Because were in the middle of foreigners, we weren’t suppressed but once we moved further away from them, we were at risk. My friend couldn’t breathe so we went to the ground floor of the parking lot [at City Centre Mall] to rest. When mercenaries arrived, the only way out was to climb of the ladder and enter the Mall compound.

as soon as we entered we saw an abnormal situation. People were screaming and people began moving toward the event and we joined the march. We were going all over the ground floor and Al-Khalifa [regime] supporters were on the second floor and third. They were throwing bottles of water on us, spitting, and shouting “People want Khalifa bin Salman”. We continued, ignoring their presence. …more