1/12 Bahrain is one of the gulf countries being hit with missiles, and as people follow the news, it’s important you understand the country, its context and history:
The indigenous population of Bahrain are the Baharna (بحارنة) – mostly made up of Arab Shia (it was one of the first countries to become Shia in the region in the 7th century). The Alkhalifa family (from the Bani Utbah tribe) occupied Bahrain by force in 1783 coming from Zubara (modern day Qatar) and have been ruling with violence since then. During the 2011 uprising one of the prominent chants was “go back to Zubara, your visit is over”, as the Bahrainis consider themselves occupied. This makes Bahrain the oldest ongoing occupation in the region. 2/12 Around 30 years after their violent take-over, the Alkhalifas struck a deal with the British to become a protectorate (to protect them from the indigenous population). During their rule, the Alkhalifas depended on the UK and US to maintain full control, oppress the local population and one of their tools was to revoke citizenship and deport many indigenous Shia families to neighboring countries. At one point leaders of the uprising in the 50s were even sent to St. Helena Island where Napoleon was held. Bahrain has one of the oldest civil rights movements in the region, stemming back to the 1920s. There are uprisings almost every ten years in the country. In the 1920s the British were regarded as the de-facto rulers of Bahrain (see: the diaries of Charles Belgrave) to the extent that they could replace one emir with another when they wanted to secure their interest (see: replacement of emir in 1923).

موضوع عاجل:
نحن قلقون جدًا بشأن والدي الذي اتصل للتو وقال إنه لن يُسمح له بإجراء مكالمات بعد الآن ، وكان يردد #البحرين حرة #فلسطين حرة، ويسقط عملاء إسرائيل - لقد استمروا في قطع المكالمة وهو يحاول الاتصال مرة أخرى. هذا تسجيل لإحدى المكالمات التي تم قطعها بالأمس خلال مكالمته ، قام بتسمية الأشخاص الذين شاركوا في أو كانوا مسؤولين عن تعذيبه ، ونحن قلقون بشأن الانتقام منه - أكثر مما يفعلونه بالفعل كما سأذكر في التغريدات التالية

Urgent thread:
We’re very worried about my father who called this morning and said he won’t be allowed to make anymore calls, and was chanting Free #Bahrain, Free #Palestine, and down with israels collaborators - they kept cutting the call and he kept trying to call back. Yesterday during his call he named people who took part in and/or were responsible for his torture, and we’re worried about the retaliation against him - more so than what they’re already doing as I’ll mention in the following tweets

There's a developing big story that will also bring in the relationship between the #UK and #Bahrain; whether the former is willing to extradite to an oppressive torturing regime - tricky for the UK cuz also involves the monarch's son..
Let's start with the background: a thread Dr. Sharifa Swar is a psychotherapist who a couple of years ago went public to expose the spread of the use of the Lyrica drug in a middle school in #Bahrain. She talked about how there were high officials involved and called for an investigation

Thread, thoughts on human rights advocacy:
It’s interesting to me that when human rights violations occur - people are always like “well we need to shed light on it!”.. and in so many cases it gets documented, talked about, shared; and yet not much changes Part of the reason is that the same governments setting up the institutions and supposed #accountability measures are also some of the governments that must be held accountable..
Then beyond that, they also decided what form of activism is acceptable vs not

Despite the fact that the #BICI report documented that people were killed under #torture in #Bahrain, the culture of #impunity continues, also because the international community did not hold the regime to account #FreeBahrainiPrisoners "At approximately 10:30 on 3 April, Mr Hasan Jassim Mohamed Maki was pronounced dead. @MSF and @Amnesty examined the body and confirmed to the family that the deceased had been attacked with sharp objects.”
#FreeBahrainiPrisoners

It’s 2 am in #Bahrain:

JUST CAME! They took my dad, my dads blood is still on the stairs! They hit my dad so much! They beat him and he cudnt breath they broke the doors, all wearing masks. They took my father and husband and brother in law.

Khalifa Salman Alkhalifa died today, he was the worlds longest unelected Prime Minister, having been for 50 years and would have continued being PM for as long as he’s alive. So who was he? #Bahrain Khalifa was known as the person responsible for many of the crackdowns in #Bahrain, and was known for being close to the #Saudi’s. People even had a prayer they would say without mentioning his name, wishing for his demise because of how cruel he was known to be

Tonight marks 8 years since my father was beaten unconscious in front of my family and taken. 8 years he’s been in prison, severely tortured, for being a human rights defender. For wanting human rights and democracy. For wanting freedom and liberty #Bahrain #DKPol Sitting on a train in #US, I read tweet after tweet frm my sister, how they took my father, how they beat him, & I mostly felt guilt. Guilt for not being there. Guilt for not protecting my family. As irrational as it is, guilt bcz I thought if I was there they wud take me instead