Human Rights and the Will to be free

On April 5, 2012, Bahraini police arrested Zainab Al-Khawaja––yet again–– for protesting her father’s unjust imprisonment, outside the Interior Ministry. Throughout the uprising in Bahrain, the blogger and activist has shined a bright light on abuses committed by the Bahraini regime. Through her blog and twitter account, @angryarabiya, Zainab spreads awareness of the situation in Bahrain and seeks support for the Bahraini people.
She is the daughter of prominent Bahraini human rights activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja. Currently serving a life sentence in prison, on April 6, Adulhadi marked the 58th day of his hunger strike to protest his controversial sentence. The government has transferred him to a military hospital because of his critical, rapidly deteriorating health. ....

 Amnesty International (AI) on Friday urged the Bahraini government to release Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment last year by a military court, so that he does not die as a result of his 50 day hunger strike. Al-Khawaja, a Danish citizen, former protection coordinator with Front Line Defenders  and leading Bahraini human rights defender, was arrested for leading protests against the Bahraini government . AI said that Al-Khawaja was sentenced without a fair trial and was subject to torture and ill-treatment while in custody. However, no investigation to verify such ill-treatment has been initiated. The organization stressed that Al-Khawaja is a "prisoner of conscience" who led a peaceful demonstration which did not advocate violence against the government. Considering this contention and Bahrain's promise to release those who were jailed during the revolt, AI called on the government to release Al-Khawaja immediately:

URGENT APPEAL Pearl Revolution Political Center to the true hero #SolidarityWithKhawaja
@NabeelRajab_ENG @angryarabiya Please relay our message to Alkhawaja that Bahrain cannot afford to lose him and that he will be desperately needed to rebuild the country after the regime is overthrown. He has shown us the path and now it is our turn to carry on.

To Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja I say " I salute your courage, your determination and your pride in being the voice of all those others who have no voice. I salute also what your represent - the struggle of all free and democratic peoples around the world. But this world - and especially the oppressed Arab world needs Abdulhadi Al-Khawaj now - ALIVE".

In solidarity with HRD AbdulHadi al-Khawaja who's starving for freedom behind bars on his hunger strike which may lead to significant complications to his health or his death in the prisons of alkhalifa if they didn't release him , We call for a "silent" sit in for 6hours with a full day hunger strike on Monday March ,26th under the name of "SAVE ALKHAWAJA" in solidarity with him and to demand his immediate release.

Note: the place of the sit in will be announced later.

Dignity Disobedience
March 20th, 2012

Is Egypt hdidng Human Rights abuses of their own? Has Egypt become a closed society that advocates fascism of the type implemented by the Al-Khalifa terrorists of Bahrain?

These events do not bode well for the people of Egypt!

[Blocking Maryam AlKhawaja and Nabeel Rajab is tantamount to outlawing civility and interpersonal caring!]

....

As the government continues to dig its way into a police state, Bahraini’s have begun to question the effectiveness of non-violent tactics. It’s doubtless to say that the creative strategies exercised by activists for the past year prove that violence was never on the agenda for change- it still isn’t. However now a disgruntled, and psychologically traumatised populace are struggling to reason the merits of a moral tactic when confronted with a regime that has lost all moral ground. It is no surprise then that after a year of having the government’s forces conduct routine violent excursions into residential areas, the odd protester is prepared to defend oneself from the government forces with a Molotov cocktail bomb. In fact one must really wonder in astonishment at how such a persecuted peoples have managed to strive for so long without ever even picking up any firearms as of yet. This may change should the government continue to ignore the civil liberties of the people.

Time, money, energy, and a dozen or so expensive government PR companies have worked to demonise the protesters as an erratic bunch of ‘violent Shia vandals’ whose goals are destructive to Bahrain’s national fabric. The Al Khalifa’s tactic for survival is to disguise Bahrain’s political corruption, with the allegation that national security has been breached. Consequently the protesters demands have been met with little seriousness – if any. The government has chosen to neglect the political upheaval that threatens its existence, in favour of sensationalising the narrative of events to the point in which a lone burning tyre causes much more hysteria amongst royalists than does a dead body.

Amnesty International on Friday urged Bahrain to free a leading human rights activist who is on a hunger strike andreminded the Gulf kingdom's rulers to fulfill promises to release all those jailed for speaking out during the country's uprising.

...Amnesty called on Bahrain to release al-Khawaja and fulfill its promise to free all those who were jailed for speaking out during the revolt.

"The Bahraini authorities have made pledges that they would release people who were imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of expression, but the continued imprisonment of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja demonstrates that they are not serious about fulfilling such promises," said Philip Luther, the group's Middle East and North Africa Director in a statement.

Read more: http://m.siouxcityjournal.com/news/world/middle-east/rights-group-urges-bahrain-to-free-hunger-striker/article_ce1c4b92-48f7-51cd-aa58-3ce162c57f2e.html#ixzz1qhQDa0Ed