Last month, Paki Wieland returned home to Northampton from Bahrain, where she’d spent a short period behind bars after being arrested during a pro-democracy demonstration.
Wieland, a veteran humanrights activist whose work has taken her around the world, was in Bahrain as part of “Witness Bahrain,” which describes itself as “a group of international observers monitoring and reporting on human rights abuses, collective punishment and suppression of Arab Spring democracy activists in the Kingdom.” The group traveled to Bahrain for the one-year anniversary of a pro-democracy uprising that prompted a fierce and violent response from government forces.
Wieland was one of six American citizens arrested by security forces during a protest at the Pearl Roundabout, the site of the initial demonstrations last year. They were detained for a brief period and then deported back to the U.S.
On Friday, March 16, Wieland will lead a discussion about the situation in Bahrain, following a screening of Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark, a documentary about the uprising and subsequent government crackdown. The film, which last fall won the Foreign Press Association’s Documentary of the Year award, was produced undercover by journalists from Al Jazeera English, the English language channel of the independent Arabic news network. It will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Frances Crowe Community Room at the Media Education Foundation, 60 Masonic St. in Northampton. The screening is part of the Northampton Committee to Stop the Wars’ regular Friday evening film series.
The Bahraini demonstrators call for civil rights and better conditions for the majority Shia population and protest the rule of King Hamad. Witness Bahrain says 65 people have been killed, and many more arrested and tortured, since the uprising began. The group also condemns the U.S. government, which has a naval base in the country, for supplying the Bahraini government with arms, saying, “Instead of using [its] influence to reflect President Obama’s words that ‘we stand for principles that include universal rights for all people and just political and economic reform,’ the U.S. instead continues to prop up the Bahraini government through military aid and arms deals.”
