Interview with Maryam Abu Deeb

Interview with Maryam Abu Deeb, whose father Mahdi Abu Deeb is in prison in Bahrain. He is president of the Bahrain Teachers Association and was punished for organizing teachers to join in the peaceful protests at Pearl Square in Bahrain in February and March 2011.

Accompanying a volunteer medic to Boori Village

4 May 2012

The day we had chosen to go with a medic to Boori village was a special religious day for Shia Muslims; 13th Jamada Thani 1428 A.H. – the anniversary of the death of Hazrat Fatima bint-e-Hazm bin Khalid (also known as Umm-ul-Baneen) – the wife of Imam Ali (a.s.) and mother of Hazrat Abbas (a.s.) which meant than the streets were fairly quiet in comparison to a regular night in a Manama village since 14th of February 2011. The streets were still blocked around the village to slow down possible riot police troops entering the village, but there was no night protest as usual, only an earlier one that took place at 4 pm. People in the streets were singing a traditional song for funerals while synchronically clapping their chest with one hand.

We drove to one of the homes in the village were the medic would later show up. At first there were three injured people and a group of very young guys waiting with their injured friend. As the rumor spread that there was an international in the house documenting cases of injury from protests, more people came; but there was no way I could cover all of the stories and cases of those who came in one night.

‏”Sushi life” in Bahrain

Nawal is a young female activist and very talented photographer. We met in a cafe in the middle of Manama. Her mother is what, in Bahraini slang, is called “Sushi” (a child from mixed Shia and Sunni Muslim parents). Nawal is not the first person I’ve met here from a mixed Shia and Sunni family, but until now I haven’t really had time to do a proper interview with anyone about the issue before. The reason I even consider this an issue important enough to write about is that the government claims that the pro-democracy uprising is “Shia-founded terrorism,” and in general has been presenting it as a problem of sectarianism. During my time here I have been trying to meet with Bahrainis from as many different parts of society as possible. Of course, since I face the risk of arrest and deportation as an international observer, researching and writing about what I see here (as happened to Witness Bahrain volunteers before me), it has so far been impossible to meet with committed pro-government people. Despite this I already have a very wide spectrum of contacts. Until now no one has expressed any sort of hatred or even dislike for someone based on religion or race. Not a single person, which I think is worth contemplating.

Nawal’s photographs:

Interview with a Bahraini medic, who voluntarily treats injured protesters

Monday, 30 April 2012

Meeting with a Bahraini medic who voluntarily treats injured protesters, mostly in private homes.

The medic who agreed to meet me worked for Bahrain TV as a monitor assistant, before the 14th of February ’11 revolution started. When things got hectic someone from Salmanya Hospital (the main public hospital of Manama) called out in all the Gulf countries for urgent medic volunteers to treat people in need. That’s when his life took a drastic change. He quit his job and chose to become a medic working for the revolution.

He is a very energetic person and very enthusiastic to talk about his work too. When we were introduced to each other by one of my contacts he asked me if I smoked and I replied “ahianan” (“sometimes”; Arabic). “ahhh – today you will smoke with me I think” he assured me. After watching only half of his photos of badly injured people and dead bodies the sometimes indeed was the time for me to smoke a cigarette with him as he had predicted.

He started explaining to me how his work functioned due to the many restrictions to a medic’s work, and due to the great danger in his job of getting put in prison, injured or even killed by the Regime forces. As I have been told many times; patients who need treatment because of accidents as a result protests or anything related to the police can’t go to the hospitals for fear of being targeted by the Regime. (more…)

Interview with Wafi Kamel Al-Majed, husband of imprisoned human rights activist, Zainab al-Khawaja

Wafi Al-Majed

Interview with Wafi Kamel Al-Majed, husband of imprisoned human rights activist, Zainab al-Khawaja 

In the hall of Wafi’s father’s house, where Wafi is staying with his 2-year-old daughter Jude, there were two big photos decorating the wall, one of Zainab, and one of Wafi on their graduation day. They both wore huge smiles, looking like any other new, young graduates with bright and promising futures ahead of them…

I asked Wafi about his wife’s current condition and the visit he had to the prison where Zainab is being held. It was just the day before, on Sunday 29 April at 12:30, that he had been allowed his first visit since Zainab’s arrest a week before. He and little Jude, two of Zainab’s sisters, and Zainab’s mother, Khadija, had gone together. A prison guard brought Zainab into the little visiting room and stayed in the room for the duration of the half-hour visit. Zainab told her family how she had been beaten by the police during her arrest. Riot police surrounded her as she kneeled on the ground, and proceeded to kick her with their boots and jab her with their police batons. Although the police filmed her arrest, the camera focused on her face and upper body, while police aimed their attacks at her lower body. Other protesters had also told Wafi that the police filmed the arrest, but not from the ground when Zainab was being abused. Zainab shouted at them, “why are you treating us like dogs” to which a police woman responded by putting her baton to Zainab’s neck and choking her.

“[Zainab] is a very strong woman. I think I was the weakest one at that point,” said Wafi. “I’m not too worried about her when she is in prison because I know how strong she is. I’m more worried about how our daughter will cope with this later in her life, having had both her mother and father in prison at different times during her childhood.” Wafi had been arrested at the same time as his father-in-law, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, and spent 10 months in prison. (more…)

Khadija Al-Mousawi speaks out about her husband, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja’s hunger strike ongoing protests in Bahrain

Khadija Al-Mousawi (@tublani2010), wife of Bahraini hunger striker Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and mother of leading activist Zainab Al-Khawaja (@angryarabiya) gives press conference to discuss her visit to her husband in hospital and daughter in prison. Additionally, Ms. Al-Mousawi discusses the latest legal developments in Abdulhadi’s case in which the Bahraini court declared a retrial without releasing her husband.