When Ebrahim Sharif’s plane touched down at Bahrain International Airport on Nov. 12, security forces were waiting to arrest him. The Bahraini political activist’s offense was calling on Arab governments to support Palestinians during a television interview in Beirut.
It was his 10th arrest since 2011, all for things he has said publicly.
The arrest, say analysts and human rights officials, demonstrates that despite hopes that Bahrain had moved recently to relax its repressive policies since its crackdown on protests in 2011, not much has changed.
“A lot can happen in 14 years. Yet the tiny country of Bahrain – the smallest in the Middle East – has failed to find a way to move on…,” wrote Brian Dooley of Human Rights First.
That’s “because the men ruling the country and responsible for the crackdown then are still in power,” he added. “The king is still the king, his son is still the crown prince (and is now also the unelected prime minister). The family remains in power by force, supported by Washington – its military ally. There are no free and fair elections to allow a change in government, and peaceful political opposition groups are not allowed to exist.”
Earlier this year, Western diplomats and others hailed King Hamad’s move to grant sweeping pardons as a sign of change and progress. It’s in Western interests that Bahrain becomes less repressive, say analysts.
That’s because Bahrain is strategically valuable. It hosts the US Fifth Fleet, has normalized relations with Israel via the Abraham Accords, and lies between Saudi Arabia and Iran in one of the world’s most critical waterways, the Persian Gulf.
It has also helped the US and Israel counter Iran. In October, the Washington Post obtained leaked documents showing that since 2022, Bahrain has hosted secret meetings for Israeli and Arab military officials to coordinate on countering Iran, gatherings that were part of a US-backed “Regional Security Construct.” These occurred while Bahraini leaders publicly condemned Israel’s Gaza campaign as “genocide.”
Still, the Al Khalifa family – the country’s Sunni rulers who arrived from Qatar in 1783 – governs a majority-Shia population of 1.6 million that has long complained of discrimination and persecution.
For example, during the Shia holy holiday of Ashura this summer, the government cracked down on the community: Security forces dismantled religious displays, beat Shias taking part in the ceremonies, and arrested dozens in Shia villages, according to the Bahrain Press Association. It noted that “Bahrain’s tolerance does not extend to its Shia citizens.”
In Duraz, a majority-Shia village just outside the capital of Manama that became the symbolic heart of Bahrain’s 2011 uprising, plainclothes officers tore down commemorative banners as protesters chanted for the release of political prisoners.
Authorities also summoned several local religious leaders for interrogation, the European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights reported. “Bahrain is the only Gulf country that recognizes this holiday as a national holiday, and festivities can take place publicly,” it wrote. “Despite this, however, the Bahraini government always carries out repressive actions during this festival.”
Meanwhile, even as the kingdom has pardoned thousands of people in recent years, every prominent political prisoner remains behind bars, human rights officials say, including Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, Abduljalil Al-Singace, and Hassan Mushaima, who have all been held since 2011, with many experiencing torture and forbidden from seeing their families, United Nations officials say.
Last year, authorities detained more than 20 minors after Gaza solidarity protests, which resulted in the shooting death of a 16-year-old boy. Around 38 minors remain in detention.
“Bahraini authorities have stolen many children’s childhoods by detaining and abusing them,” said Niku Jafarnia, Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch.
In 2022, Bahrain released a human rights plan and had promised change, human rights officials noted. But they added that in the ensuing years, nothing has altered.
“Any thought that Bahrain has turned a new leaf should now be completely stricken from memory,” said Husain Abdulla, executive director of Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain. “The amnesties seem to have only made space enough in Bahrain’s prisons for a new batch of children, suffering from the same torture, abuse, and neglect that we saw before.”