By Kate Raphael

[Kate Raphael, co-producer & co-host of KPFA's Women's Magazine, went to Bahrain in February as a human rights observer with Witness Bahrain.] 

Kate Raphael @ Occupy Oakland - January 28

I went to five demonstrations in six days, and breathed more tear gas than I could possibly have imagined - it even filtered into our apartment every night. On February 14, I was arrested in a city under intense military siege. All twelve of us who had made it into the country (four others were denied entry) were tracked down by undercover police and summarily deported. There is a video shot by the police of our arrest posted on YouTube here. 

Our short time in the country was long enough to instill in us a love for the country and its people. The struggle for justice in Bahrain and throughout the Gulf is intimately connected
to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to U.S. support for the illegal Israeli regime.

Bahrain Women Marching

Bahrain gas-filled sky

When we hear the words "Arab Spring," most of us think about Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. Especially in the U.S., the uprising in Bahrain has gotten scant attention. Bahrain is the only Gulf country to have had an uprising, and it's been going on continuously since February 14, 2011. Last March, the Bahraini mercenary riot police force, aided by 1000 troops from neighboring Saudi Arabia and another 500 police from the United Arab Emirates, swept into the heart of Manama and brutally evicted the month-long occupation of Pearl Roundabout, known as LuLu to Bahrainis. Ever since that time, the Bahraini freedom movement has been trying to get back to LuLu, and the one-year anniversary on February 14 was meant to be the culmination of these efforts. Because they knew that King Hamad's regime would deny foreign journalists access to the country, Bahraini human rights activists invited a group of activists from North America and Europe to come witness the anniversary protests.

Bahrain is a densely populated island archipelago. About 40% of those who live there are foreign or foreign-born. Of the Bahrainis, around 70% are Shi'a, but the King and the elite are Sunni. In the U.S. media, it is often portrayed as a religious conflict, but the activists are clear that they want freedom and equal rights for everyone in the country.

 The United States has had a close military relationship with Bahrain since the first Gulf War in 1991. The Fifth Fleet is based there. After Congress stopped a planned $53 million arms deal last month, the State Department has moved secretly to pursue it through a loophole that allows it to treat each sale as a separate transaction too small to need Congressional approval. The U.S. and its allies, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE, fear that if the Bahraini revolution succeeds, it will set off a wave of revolts by oppressed majorities in the other Gulf countries.

For more information on the situation in Bahrain and our work there, visit www.WitnessBahrain.org.

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Kate Raphael of Witness Bahrain interviews Zainab al Khawaja (@AngryArabiya) for Women's Magazine about the Arab Spring, the goals of the democracy movement in Bahrain, and her father's hunger strike for freedom. Zainab also talks about how she became one of Bahrain's leading tweeps. Audio 15:11 min.