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Bahraini researcher: Murder, threat of rape and detention of Bahraini women

SHAFAQNA- A Bahraini researcher, referring to the crimes of the Al Khalifa regime against women in the country, said that the claim of the Bahraini rulers to establish peace and security in the region is nothing more than a lie.

“Elham Shakeri” a researcher of the Bahrain Forum for Human Rights Association (BFHR) in the third session of the series of Ashura women’s webinars in English announced that the Bahraini government claims to establish peace, security and peaceful coexistence in the region, are inconsistent with its aggression against Bahraini women that have happened over the last decade. He added: “Since the beginning of the popular uprising in Bahrain in 2011 until today, the methods of suppressing freedoms have expanded at various levels and forms, including: security, political, legal, judicial and media.

Shakeri stressed that the official repression in Bahrain is not limited to one group, but includes the youth, the elderly, women and children. Violations of the rights of Bahraini women also take many forms, including illegal murder, arbitrary dismissal, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, unfair trials, discrimination in scholarships and employment. The researcher of the Bahrain Human Rights Association then noted: From 2011 to the end of June 2020, more than 300 Bahraini women, including 8 girls, were detained. More than 200 female students from universities and more than 380 women from their jobs in both the public and private spheres have also been fired for political reasons.

Noting that Bahraini women have also been targeted for illegal killings, Shakeri said: “So far, more than 10 women have lost their lives, including the martyr Bahia al-Aradi, who was shot dead by Al-Khalifa militants in the early days of the Bahraini uprising.” He stressed that in Bahrain prisons, in order to obtain false confessions from prisoners, they are threatened with sexual harassment for their family members, including their spouses, sisters and even their mothers, as evidenced by a report by the Bahrain Independent Truth and Reconciliation Committee.

Elham Shakeri added: “During these years, more than 5,000 private houses and properties have been attacked by various security forces, which have been accompanied by insults and harassment of homeowners, especially women.” The report of the Bassiouni Commission states in this regard that: “(When attacking homes in the middle of the night) housewives were asked to stand in front of officers in their pajamas and were not allowed to cover their bodies, which made them feel oppressed and humiliated because of their religious beliefs.”

Shakeri then named Zakia Al-Burbouri, a political prisoner in Bahrain, and said Burbouri is 32 years old and a chemical engineer who was arrested on May 18, 2018, following an illegal attack by 15 masked security forces on her home at around 3am. She was tried and stripped of her citizenship on the basis of her confessions obtained under torture, but was later reinstated.

Zakia was abducted for two weeks and then spent about a month in solitary confinement. Officers from the Criminal Investigation Unit threatened to detain her brothers and barred al-Burbouri from receiving essential medical care. She was subjected to insulting interrogations. Among the rights she was deprived of were restrictions on visiting her family and her right to spend time outside the cell.

The representative of the Bahrain Human Rights Association also referred to the case of Ms. Ebtissam Al-Saegh, a Bahraini human rights defender, and said: “She was tortured and sexually harassed by members of the Bahraini National Security Service during her arrest and interrogation in May 2017. Subsequently, in July 2017, masked security officers raided her home and arrested her following the publication of a tweet and revelations about the harassment of women prisoners in the women’s prison in the Isa Town Prison. Al-Saegh endured very difficult conditions and her human dignity was destroyed and she was tortured and abused.

This news is originally published by Shafaqna Persian and translated by Shafaqna English

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