Bahrain doctor: If US loses the faith of people like me, it loses the Mideast

With the news that there will be a “retrial” for Bahraini hunger striker Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and 20 other protesters arrested for taking part in the uprising in Bahrain last year, I fear that the legal process is still being used to deliberately deny justice. My own trial proves Bahrain continues to violate the rights of its people.

I’m an accidental activist who was back in court just days ago, and am awaiting another appearance next week in the appeal of my military court conviction. The Bahrain authorities are still pressing charges against me and 19 other medics.

They say we were involved in occupying the main hospital in the capital city of Manama, trying to overthrow the regime by force, and smuggling weapons. In fact, what we did was treat injured protesters. Some of us told the international media the truth about what was happening, a truth the government was trying to hide.

Bahrain is ruled by a monarchy – the king’s uncle has been the unelected prime minister for the last 41 years. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa can change the Constitution when and as he wants to.

In February 2011, I joined the thousands of people at the Pearl Roundabout in the heart of Manama where the protests for democracy began, volunteering at a medical tent to treat people who needed medical attention. The government soon turned on the protesters and on us, the medics who treated them.

A month later, my life changed suddenly, and forever.

On March 19, armed and masked security forces broke into my home in the middle of the night and took me away. I was the first woman arrested in the crackdown. For 22 days, I was held in solitary confinement and subjected to verbal abuse and torture, including electrocution. In all, I was detained for two months.

I was forced to sign a statement confessing to hatred for the regime, criminally supporting protesters, and other trumped up charges.

Along with the 19 other medics who were also tortured into confessing, I was convicted in a sham military trial and sentenced to 15 years in prison. We expect the verdict of our appeal very soon.

We are all out of detention while this appeals process drags on, and I recently went to the United States to ask American lawmakers and administration officials to support the Bahraini people.

Bahrain is a small country. Our democratic uprising has not received as much attention in the West as those in Egypt or Syria. But in terms of the percentage of people participating, our movement is among the largest.

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