The following letter submitted by a friend of mine to the New York Times on Tuesday of this week, has received no response from the editors thus far. I am posting it here, since the NYT’s misrepresentation of this issue should not go uncorrected. (Sara Slama).
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I found Souad Mekhennet’s article “Bahrain Holds Grand Prix, Keeping Protesters at Bay” (April 23, 2012) misleading on a number of levels. In the interest of time, however, I will limit myself to the aspect that struck me as most troubling: the author’s characterization of Bahraini democracy activist Zainab Alkhawaja.
To begin with, Ms. Mekhennet seems to suggest that Ms. Alkhawaja was a lone voice calling for the suspension of the Formula One Grand Prix in Bahrain. Anyone following this story knows this to be patently untrue. Though Al Wefaq did not oppose Formula One, in the weeks leading up to the race calls for cancelation and boycott could be heard throughout Bahraini society. Graffiti condemning the Grand Prix went up on walls all over Manama, and protesters took to the streets on a daily basis. That is, of course, those protesters who were not barricaded into their homes and villages by the ruling Khalifa family’s security forces. The black smoke Ms. Mekhennet mentions in passing was not the product of random vandalism by disgruntled demonstrators. Anyone reading the protesters’ tweets (sadly the only media open to them during all this) on Sunday will know that this smoke was the one way they could think of to get into the Formula One audience’s line of vision.
Far more distressing than any suggestions of Ms. Alkhawaja’s political isolation, however, was Ms. Mekhennet’s portrayal of this peaceful activist as a radical extremist calling for violence:
Matar Matar, another spokesman for Al Wefaq, said, “We are calling for peaceful protests and are against the use of violence.” The group said it holds only protests that are authorized by the government. But Ms. Khawaja rejected the argument that demonstrations should always be peaceful. When asked if she would call on protesters to refrain from using bombs, she said: “It really amazes me when people ask if I will condemn it. I will not.”
As someone following this story from the start and long aware of the Alkhawaja family’s activism, I find it nearly impossible to believe that this quote was presented in its accurate context. Ideally, we would turn to Ms. Alkhawaja right now and ask her for a clarification. Unfortunately though, Zainab Alkhawaja will not be speaking to anyone during the next week, as she is currently in prison – not, as it happens, for an act of violent opposition, but rather for sitting in a roundabout on Saturday night with her hand held up in a sign of peace (see photos below).
So no, we cannot ask Ms. Alkhawaja for an explanation. But we can examine the information already available to us.
Zainab Alkhawaja is the daughter of legendary Bahraini human rights defender Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, who is serving a lifetime sentence for organizing peaceful resistance and demonstrations against the Khalifa regime. Mr. Alkhawaja was taken by force from his home, beaten unconscious in front of his family, and so violently tortured that metal plates later had to be inserted into his jaw to keep it from falling apart. He is currently on a hunger strike to protest his (and other peaceful activists’) imprisonment. Tomorrow, if he is still alive, he will complete his eleventh week without food (eight weeks more than the longest hunger strike Mahatma Gandhi ever undertook).
The Alkhawaja family’s record of peaceful resistance is unimpeachable. Mr. Alkhawaja, as well as his wife, and his daughters Maryam and Zainab, have always engaged in and advocated non-violent demonstration against the Bahraini regime.
Ms. Alkhawaja herself has been at the forefront of peaceful protests in her country during the past several weeks (see photo below). This is at least (I’ve lost count) her third detention this month. Other arrests include one for standing at the gates of Fort Prison and calling up to her dying father (captured on video by a passing driver and tweeted here: http://www.twitvid.com/DXR24), and one for simply entering the military hospital where he was being held.
Given all this, it seems highly unlikely that Ms. Alkhawaja would afterward, within hours, turn around and begin endorsing violence. How then are we to understand her quote? By understanding the context in which it was most likely made.
Accounts from the ground suggest that many anti-Khalifa protesters feel themselves besieged and under attack from the government – and not without reason: in the past 14 months, security forces have killed more than 80 people. An estimate from the Brookings Institution’s Shadi Hamid puts Bahrain’s rate of peaceful-protester deaths at the second highest per capita of any nation involved in the Arab Spring.
Against this backdrop, one can begin to grasp how many protesters may see certain acts not as violence per se, but as self-defense. The Alkhawaja family has been hounded with requests to denounce this sort of resistance. Even the phrasing of Ms. Alkhawaja’s statement in this article suggests an utter exhaustion and exasperation with the question. It is understandable that she would not wish to alienate fellow protesters, and it is understandable that she would find demands for condemnation problematic. Let’s be clear: nowhere do we see Ms. Alkhawaja condoning the use of violence; we simply hear her refusing to denounce the actions of her compatriots, many of whom are in physical danger and feel they are fighting for their own protection.
The paucity of articles on this situation is baffling on numerous fronts. Mr. Alkhawaja is an icon to so many – not just in Bahrain, but throughout the Middle East. From a political standpoint, his ordeal is tremendously significant for the future of democracy and human rights in the region. But the situation is also profoundly gripping on a human level: a father on his deathbed, his two passionate, articulate, and courageous daughters relentlessly hurling themselves at the regime to carry on the cause for which he is dying. It’s positively mythic. Imagine if a similar situation had arisen around Vaclav Havel or Lech Walesa, back in the 1980’s: The New York Times would have been covering it every other day!
The American media has failed spectacularly in its coverage of Bahrain –maintaining a startling silence on the topic of Bahraini oppression in general and Abdulhadi Alkhawaja’s plight, in particular. Let us at very least not deepen this failure by now slandering and misrepresenting the stance of someone as principled and courageous as his daughter Zainab.
Sincerely,
Sarah Hildt
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Please find the links to the images below:
http://p.twimg.com/ArBYtSXCAAA
http://twitpic.com/9cj38t/fullhttps://twitter.com/#!/M_
The American media has failed spectacularly in its coverage of Bahrain –maintaining a startling silence on the topic of Bahraini oppression in general and Abdulhadi Alkhawaja’s plight, in particular. Let us at very least not deepen this failure by now slandering and misrepresenting the stance of someone as principled and courageous as his daughter Zainab.
Sincerely,
Sarah Hildt
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Please find the links to the images below:
http://p.twimg.com/ArBYtSXCAAA
http://twitpic.com/9cj38t/fullhttps://twitter.com/#!/M_
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