Zainab al Khawaja Arrested Near Pearl Roundabout

Zainab al Khawaja Arrested Near Pearl Roundabout
12 February, 2012 – Witness Bahrain

Prominent activist Zainab al-Khawaja was arrested today during an attempt to walk to Pearl (Lulu) Roundabout initiated by human rights leader Nabeel Rajab. A few meters from the blocked entrance to the site of last year’s encampment, police fired tear gas directly at the group of ten people, including two children. A ten-year-old girl, Malak Rajab, was overwhelmed by tear gas.

Zainab al-Kahawjah continued running toward the entrance and was surrounded by police. When she did not tweet for forty minutes, word went around that she had been disappeared. She is being held at Nuaim Police Station.

Zainab is the daughter of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who is serving a life sentence for his human rights activism. Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who began an open-ended hunger strike on Wednesday in the lead-up to the February 14 anniversary of the ongoing revolution, was taken to the hospital last night.

Zainab Courageously Stopping Security Forces in Previous Protest

Zainab came to prominence last April after staging a 10-day hunger strike to demand the release of her father, uncle, husband and brother-in-law, who were all being held for their political activities. She tweets as @angryarabiya, and has over 33,000 followers.

A brief interview with Zainab al Khawaja is included in the video clip [above] shot by a Witness Bahrain team member two nights ago in Sitra.