Christian Science Monitor: Beyond Politics, Bahrain Campaign to Humiliate Shiites
Local Editor
Apart from quashing political dissent, the Sunni-led government appears bent on psychologically humiliating the island's Shiite majority into silent submission, said the Christian Science Monitor website on Tuesday.
According to the website, Ayat al-Gormezi penned a "naughty" poem about Bahrain's prime minister last February, questioning his parentage. In another poem, she imagined a conversation between Bahrain's king and the devil. Then she read her rhymes in public, which got posted on YouTube in the early days of Bahrain's uprising when the country was electric with hope and excitement.
In the first week of her detention, she was blindfolded, beaten, and forced to stand for hours while her abusers repeatedly played a CD of her YouTube readings, according to people familiar with her case. They forced open her mouth and spat into it. A female officer stuck a toilet bowl brush into her mouth. She was given electric shocks to her cheeks. In graphic language, male security officers described how they were going to rape her, though they never did. She was not allowed to call her family.
Last week, she was charged by a military tribunal with breaching public security by participating in a public gathering, insulting the king, and inciting hatred and contempt for the government.
al-Gormezi's ordeal and hundreds of others documented by Bahraini and international human rights groups underscore a deeply troubling aspect of the Bahraini government's policy of repression.
Meanwhile, the US despite its slamming to Arab dictator regimes oppressing their people, has remained largely silent amid harsh criticism of Bahrain's brutal crackdown.
Apart from quashing political dissent, the Sunni-led government appears bent on psychologically humiliating the island's Shiite majority into silent submission, said the Christian Science Monitor website on Tuesday.
According to the website, Ayat al-Gormezi penned a "naughty" poem about Bahrain's prime minister last February, questioning his parentage. In another poem, she imagined a conversation between Bahrain's king and the devil. Then she read her rhymes in public, which got posted on YouTube in the early days of Bahrain's uprising when the country was electric with hope and excitement.
In the first week of her detention, she was blindfolded, beaten, and forced to stand for hours while her abusers repeatedly played a CD of her YouTube readings, according to people familiar with her case. They forced open her mouth and spat into it. A female officer stuck a toilet bowl brush into her mouth. She was given electric shocks to her cheeks. In graphic language, male security officers described how they were going to rape her, though they never did. She was not allowed to call her family.
Last week, she was charged by a military tribunal with breaching public security by participating in a public gathering, insulting the king, and inciting hatred and contempt for the government.
al-Gormezi's ordeal and hundreds of others documented by Bahraini and international human rights groups underscore a deeply troubling aspect of the Bahraini government's policy of repression.
Meanwhile, the US despite its slamming to Arab dictator regimes oppressing their people, has remained largely silent amid harsh criticism of Bahrain's brutal crackdown.
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