Bahrain Rings in the New Year With Arrests, Tear Gas and Protests
Bahrain, where a crackdown following a popular uprising continues, has welcomed another year with a heavy baggage from the year before. The heads of the two largest political groups (Al Wefaq Islamic Society‘s Shaikh Ali Salman and the National Democratic Action Society‘s (Waad) Ebrahim Sharif) are in prison, the leaders of the 2011 protests are also in jail and all the country’s leading human rights activists are either in exile or facing trial.
Bahrain’s Twittersphere is one of the most active in Arab countries, where Bahrainis use Twitter as one of the few channels still available — not without perils though — to demonstrate dissent.
Manama,
Bahrain. 2nd January 2015 — Baby girl surrounded by tear gas, with her
mother and her siblings heading to their car during the clashes. —
Violent clashes between protesters and police troops continue in
Bahrain, after Sheikh Ali Salman was arrested. Opposition protesters
call for his immediate release. Photograph by Sayed Baqer Al Kamel.
Copyright: Demotix
