Bahrain Arrests Forty Women, Asks Iranian Help
Bahraini security forces have arrested and beaten more than 40 females protesting against the parliamentary by-elections in Bahrain, the country's main opposition group, "al-Wefaq" announced.
The female Bahrainis, including seven minors aged between 12 and 15, were arrested on Friday, one day before the by-elections -boycotted by the opposition- to replace 18 lawmakers who resigned from the parliament in protest to the crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.
"More than 40 Bahraini women were savagely arrested... in a commercial centre," "al-Wefaq" said in a statement on Monday, adding that "they were beaten and humiliated."
Nour al-Ghasla, 20, one of the detainees, "had bruises on her face apparently from ill-treatment in custody," the Amnesty statement said.
Condemning the females' arrests as "savage and inhumane," "al-Wefaq" said that they had only been expressing their "right to freedom of expression."
The Bahraini authorities have "patently denied these women and girls their rights after rounding them up at a Manama shopping center," Philip Luther, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa said in the statement.
Election results in Bahrain showed that more than 80 percent of the electorate refused to vote in the by-elections in the country.
According to a Bahraini government website, less than one in every five voters cast their ballots on Saturday.
Of the 144,513 eligible voters in 14 districts only 25,130 came out to vote,
representing a 17.4 percent turnout, the Bahraini government's elections website reported.
Meanwhile, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid Bin Ahmad al-Khalifah has asked for Iran to help the country resolve the current crisis.
He made the remarks during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on the sidelines of the 66th annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday.
Salehi raised concerns about recent developments in Bahrain, saying that the crisis can only be solved through dialogue between the Bahraini authorities and the people.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama. org
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