Nada Alwadi is a Bahraini journalist, writer and researcher. She has been working in print media since 2003 covering politics and human rights issues in Bahrain and the Middle East. Nada holds a Master in Mass Communication from the University of Maryland, where she was a Humphrey/Fulbright fellow in 2009. Nada covered the recent crackdown in Bahrain for several international media including USA Today.
Articles by Nada Alwadi
BICI unable to stop the uprising in Bahrain
Since the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report was released at a huge ceremony in Bahrain last month, a new political era has started. The much awaited report has put most of the cards on the table after a very long period of pro-government propaganda and misleading information regarding what actually happened in Bahrain earlier this year. This report, for example, has put to rest once and for all the whole accusation that there was Iranian influence over the uprising that began in Manama last February.
Since the release of the report, several events have taken place in Washington D.C. and other parts of the world that have tried to answer the questions: What’s next? What does the report mean and what should be done now?
While the report was considered a major development in the “Bahrain story” in the international media and among policymakers, the view inside Bahrain looks very different. Nothing on the ground in the country has changed, and people can see now more than ever that no report can change their situation without a real willingness for change.
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Bahrain’s movement alive regardless of media neglect
He runs impulsively and courageously, carrying his country’s flag as if he were carrying his own dream. He looks young, athletic, and fearless. He jumps over a bridge’s fence and runs to the place where many of his countrymen were killed not long ago. Then he raises his flag and waves it high, trying to avoid the policemen running to stop him. He was standing in that same spot six months ago, carrying that same flag and living that same dream. Today, his dream is besieged, just like the spot where he is standing. Soon, dozens of riot police rush out from four vehicles, surround him, take him down, and confiscate his flag. There, his punishment awaits him—a brutal beating by the police, who then take him away.
His name is Mohamed Ali Alhaiki, an ordinary young man who was the talk of Bahrain few days ago. On Saturday, Mohamed—who was fired from his job after participating in the anti-government protests—decided to carry the Bahraini flag and walk with it right to the middle of Pearl Roundabout in the center of the capital Manama.
Mohamed’s symbolic action, which was filmed and posted on YouTube, will be remembered by hundreds of thousands of Bahrainis who have participated in pro-democracy protests since February 14th. They will remember this like they remember Ali Jawad Al-Sheikh, the 14-year-old boy who was killed a few days earlier on the morning of Eid—one of two days of celebration for Muslims—while he was participating with his friends in pro-democracy protest in his village.
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