More than 140 activists join the Human Rights Hunger Chain for Bahrain

2012-01-19 - 2:57 p

The people of Bahrain are still loyal to their peaceful revolution. Every day, the young men and women of Bahrain are thinking of creative peaceful ways in which to protest as they strive to bring their revolution taking place in the dark back into the limelight for the World to see. The latest idea in the arena of Bahrain's peaceful resistance is the Human Rights Hunger Chain for Bahrain the mind child of a young Bahraini woman who wishes to remain anonymous due to security reason. The Human Rights Hunger Chain for Bahrain as the name suggests is a non political event with purely human objectives and demands. It defends the human rights of every Bahraini citizen, the very human rights that are violated and abused on a daily basis by the Bahraini authorities. The HR hunger chain for Bahrain was launched on the 14th of January 2011. Participants from various professions in life have joined the chain; doctors, lawyers, journalists, academics and others have all joined from Bahrain and Worldwide. The duration of the chain is 100 days. Each participant is assigned a day on which to go on hunger strike for 24 hours. The strike is then passed to the next participant in line, hence forming a chain. Bahrain Mirror has met the organizer of the Hunger Chain and had the following dialogue with her about the chain as an idea, its objectives and how it works. Hunger Chain without Harm Bahrain Mirror:Tell us more about the idea behind the Hunger Chain. After the February events that took place in Bahrain, I started reading about hunger strikes and how they were considered as a method of non-violent resistance and I have noticed how sometimes hunger strikers are not given the attention they deserve. I read for instance about Bobby Sands, Robert Gerard "Bobby" Sands 9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981) the Irish revolutionary who was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike in which Irish republican prisoners protested against the removal of Special Category Status (status of political prisoner). What he asked for was not impossible to attain, hr didn’t even ask to be released from prison. All he protested for was status of a political prisoner but he died after 65 days of hunger strike without attainting his goal. I realised that a hunger striker exposes himself to a lot of harm achieving the objectives of the strike and sometimes may die without seeing them being achieved. Also most people have a low threshold/tolerance to such things. I thought of a way in which to make the duration of the hunger strike as long as possible without inflicting harm on the people involved, the idea of the Hunger Chain was born. Each participant in the chain is an important link through which the hunger strike is passed. The chain cannot be completed without these links however, these links or participants will put in a bearable amount of effort which is not harmful or deadly. Each person goes on strike for 24 hours only after which the strike is passed to the next participant (link) in the chain. We ensure that the chain continues for 100 days but we also ensure that no one is harmed. I did not want anyone to get harmed. In order to reach an audience I created a twitter account @HRhchain4BH and started tweeting the objectives of the Human Rights Hunger Chain for Bahrain. Some well known individuals helped me to reach as many people as possible and I started receiving requests to join on the Chain's email: HRhchain4BH@gmail.com.Each person is assigned a day on which to fast and a number showing his order in the chain. A message to the World. Bahrain Mirror: What is the message that you want this chain to convey? This is a hunger chain with purely humanitarian objectives, for reinstating the Human Rights of the Bahraini people. The objectives are: • Immediately end violent repression of protests. • Ensure reinstatement and compensation of all workers. • Immediately reinstate all students, faculty, and staff. • Allow people access to medical care. • Ensure Fairness of all Trails. Through this Hunger Chain we are reaching out to the World with a message that the people of Bahrain are fighting in all the non violent / peaceful ways available to them. Bahrain Mirror:Who is this message targeted at? This message is specifically targeted at the International community. We want to raise awareness about the Human Rights violations that occur on a daily basis and to urge the international community to pressure the authorities to stop them, Bahrain Mirror:How did you find the pubic response to this idea? When I first launched the Hunger Chain the response as expected was slow. People mostly wanted to know how the chain works, most people did not understand the concept. Many inquired about the objectives and method. However, after some well known people supported and joined the chain, the response was much better especially during the last days of registration. We are still receiving emails which made us reconsider opening the door again for more people to join. Bahrain Mirror: Why did you chose to have a 100 day chain where each participant strikes individually rather than one day for participants to strike collectively on ?The concept is that of a continuous Hunger Chain where each person feels important and feels part of something bigger, something which he cannot achieve alone. Something like a relay race, where you run your part of the race and then hand the stick over to the next person to continue. We wanted it to be a new idea never tried before in Bahrain. To be able to achieve a 100 day hunger chain I believe is impressive and brings out the message that the Bahraini people continue to demand their rights . My hopes for The Hunger Chain was to be like a torch that lights up the way for Human Rights in Bahrain. For each person to be and to feel that he has contributed in passing this torch on. I was told by some that they would be tweeting about their experiences on their hunger strike day and about the reasons behind them joining the chain. Others asked for specific dates connected to certain events, for example Feb 14 or Feb 17 which are dates with special meaning to many Bahrainis as they are connected to the events they lived. Participants from around the World. Bahrain Mirror: How many participants have joined the Hunger Chain? Are the names made public ? What are some of the famous names that joined? Until the 13^th of January, which was the last day of registration 140 participants from 10 countries have joined the Human Rights Hunger Chain for Bahrain. The countries are: USA, Australia, Ireland, Canada, UK, Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi, Lebanon & Ghana. Due to increasing demand, we will be reopening the registration to allow more people to join. There will therefore be more than one participant for each day of the Hunger chain to accommodate for the number which exceed the number of days(100 days). Some participants wished to remain anonymous, while others did not mind that their names go public. We gave the participant the option to either remain anonymous or announce their participation in the hunger chain. There is a large number of famous like from different professions. In terms of Bahraini nationals the following people joined: Dr. Nabeel Tammam (Consultant ENT Surgeon) who by the way is the first link in the Hunger Chain, with us also are human rights activists Nabeel Rajab and Maryam Al Khawaja, Dr. Rula Al Saffar (Head of Nursing Society) Ex MP Matar Matar, Writer and journalist Basema Al Qassab, Dr Ali Al Ekri (Consultant Orthopedic Surgeon) Dr. Ghassan Dhaif (Consultant Oral and Dental Health Surgeon) Dr. Ali Ahmed Al Dairi (Critic and writer), S. Mohsin Al Alawi (Lawyer), Adel Marzooq (Journalist), Hussain Khalaf (Journalist) Sawsan Dahneem (Poet) Husain Marhoon (Journalist) Mujtaba Al Moaemen (Blogger), Nada Al Wadi (Journalist) Faisal Hayat (Journalist) Fatima Abu Idrees (academic Dismissed School Head mistress) Dr. Aalaa Al Shehabi (Academic) Dr. Mahmood Al Fardan (Internal Medicine and emergency medicine specialist) and Dr. Feryal Al Daaisi (Pediatrician) . A number of non Bahraini activists have also joined the hunger chain: Tony Mitchell who was a college professor who witnessed the events of 14 February and its aftermath and was expelled due to that. Tara O'Grady (Human Rights activist) as well as KC Spencer who took special interest in the Hunger Chain and even mentioned it on his blog. Janet Beckham a nurse who used to work in Bahrain has also joined. Re opening the door for all to join. Bahrain Mirror: Did you reach out to any Human Rights Organisations or to the Arabic and international media? Yes we tried communicating with some organizations and will continue to speak to many others during the course of the hunger chain. Bahrain Mirror: why did you chose the 14^th of January as a launch date? At the outset, I was unsure of how successful the chain would be and whether people would accept the concept of a hunger chain. I decided to have a demo chain from the 14^th of January until 14^th February and then to launch the actual Hunger Chain on the 14^th of February. We were surprised with the response we received and decided to go for a 100 day hunger chain with a day for each participant. However, the great people of Bahrain surprised us further and our number reached to 140 participants which meant that we started giving out dates from 14 January to accommodate the participants, now we have 2 people striking on the same day. However it seems that we have more people willing to join and so we will be reopening our doors to receive them as part of the Human Rights Hunger Chain for Bahrain.

More than 140 activists join the Human Rights Hunger Chain for Bahrain

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