Bahrain Women Take Pride in Vital Protest Role

Bahrain Women Take Pride in Vital Protest Role
By SOUAD MEKHENNET – December 20, 2011 – NYT

MANAMA, BAHRAIN — Women in Bahrain are known to play more of a role in public life than in most neighboring countries. They drive, vote, and some are active in politics.

So it was no surprise to find on arriving here that Bahraini women were also prominent in protests. During a recent demonstration outside the U.N. office in Manama, women, most of them wearing black abayas, stood apart from male peers, carrying pictures of men who they say had been tortured and signs asking for global support.

Noura, 24, was one of the few women not wearing a head scarf. “I am here because Bahrain has to change,” she proclaimed, though boldness in baring her head did not extend to being identified by full name. “For years now, the Khalifas are dividing the power among themselves,” she said, adding that she was Sunni like the ruling family, but that the Bahraini news media very often report that the protesters are all Shiite. “There are Sunni people like me criticizing the fact that most of the minister posts and important positions are in the hands of one family,” she insisted.

Indeed, two days of reporting turned up some women like Noura who were Sunni and critical of the ruling family, while others, like Sawsan Haji Taqawi, a member of Parliament, who criticized the opposition, were Shiite.

Mrs. Haji Taqawi said she had been attacked by some in the opposition for taking part in elections. “I can only say don’t be fooled and believe that for all of them, democracy is meaning the same as for people in the West,” she said, claiming that much of the opposition had a more conservative religious agenda and would not support the empowerment of women. “Mistakes have been made,” she conceded, “and we need to work on it together. But how should this happen, if the opposition is not willing to sit down?” ….more