A Subdued Anniversary of Bahrain’s 2011 Uprising

Protesters call for reform in Bahrain (Wikipedia)

Demonstrations on February 14 marked ten years since pro-democracy protests gripped Bahrain before being crushed a month later. 6,000 Bahrainis had marched against the ruling Al Khalifa family, 122 of whom would later die in the government crackdown coordinated with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The protests stunned the region’s monarchies, who rely upon tight control on political expression to maintain their positions. The Bahraini demonstrations came about as a result of the wider Arab Spring movement that toppled autocrats in North Africa and led to civil war in Syria and Yemen,   

This month’s commemoration, dampened both by heavy security and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, pales in comparison to the original protests. Small groups of people did little more than wave the national flag. Slogans and banners denouncing the government were nowhere to be seen. Manama’s Pearl Square, the heart of the action in 2011, remained empty except for some relaxed bands of police. Ala’a al-Shehabi, now a researcher at University College London, voiced the frustration felt by those who failed a decade ago: “We were standing at the gate of the palace, and that gate felt like the only thing that stood between us and a political transformation in Bahrain… We thought we didn’t have anything to lose.”

Bahraini activists and outside observers remarked that as in many other countries that witnessed the Arab Spring, little has changed. Although immediately inspired by the democratic activism sweeping the region, the revolt’s origins trace back to tensions between the Sunni monarchy and the Shi’a-majority population that have simmered for decades. Initially, the Shi’a-lead opposition had called for constitutional reform through elections, stopping short of advocating for the monarchy’s abolition. But as mass arrests, martial law, and sporadic killings by security forces became increasingly prevalent, and as successful regime changes occurred in nearby countries, demonstrators decided to target the monarchy directly. 

The government, blaming the violence on Iran, a Shi’ite state that has asserted a historical claim to sovereignty over Bahrain, invited troops from the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia to help quell the uprising. Since 2011, authorities have targeted Shi’a political groups and religious leaders as well as human rights activists, journalists, and online critics. Mass trials have led to the incarceration of nearly 4,000 dissidents, while hundreds of political exiles find themselves scattered across the globe. Political parties have been disbanded, and any inklings that the government would consider constitutional amendments, let alone elections, have disappeared. 

In a February update, Amnesty International stated, “Since 2011, the only structural changes Bahrain has seen have been for the worse, as opposition parties have been outlawed, the only independent news outlet has been shut down, and new laws have further closed the space for political participation.” Asma Darwish of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights has called attention to the international community’s lack of action: “The silence of the international community has emboldened the Bahraini government to continue to suppress dissent without being held accountable. The lack of a clear and persistent international stand toward human rights violations in Bahrain has played a role in how things turned out ten years after 2011.” 

Bahrain’s unrest in 2011 is sometimes dubbed the “forgotten revolution of the Arab Spring.” The government removed the event’s last vestige, a small monument in Pearl Square, years ago.  Nevertheless, the monarchy has not outright ignored the underlying societal inequalities that provoked such anger. Analysts point to an acceleration of liberalization measures aimed at boosting commercial opportunity and labor participation among Shi’a youth, for example in new industrial zones adjacent to Shia-dominated areas. “Faced with a popular revolt, the Al Khalifa refused all political concessions. Economic investment was their sole response.”