Living in the Fear

It’s an anniversary. Not a good one though. Last year on 14th February, the day of love, was the Day of Rage in Bahrain. Protestors gathered from various villages and sat on the Pearl Roundabout. They demanded the King to be dethroned and new elections to be held in the Parliament.

We have seen a lot in the last one year. A country that was constantly partying turned into a morose land of supporters and protestors. After a month of agony, the Pearl was torn down to shoo the protestors away. We had fled the country in fear of the worst. Thankfully, I was not here to witness those harrowing 2 hours when the phones conked, curfew was imposed and the country went into deep silence.

Several arrests were made thereafter and we heard gory rumors. We went back to partying but were always on the alert. Our favourite lounge which opened into a beautiful sea smelled of tear gas from the near-by village. The shops have always been on sale. The ones which haven’t are out of business. Several people found jobs elsewhere, others were laid off. Some protestors were fired for not attending office for more than a month; others stopped working and were worse off than ever before.

I’m sure life in the villages has been affected drastically. It seems only 1% of the population wants to protest, others are just being forced into it and so live a torturous life. Some are frustrated with what’s going on and want the drama to end; peacefully or violently. On the face of it, nobody likes aggression especially when the regime is not that bad. They justify their protest by calling it a biased kingdom, have you seen a country which isn’t?

I’m scared right now. The coming week is crucial. I don’t want to hear about fights with swords and Molotov cocktails. I want my husband to go to work and come back safely. I don’t want to hear about any procession. I want my Bahrain to get back to normal. I wish people understood that life is worse for the poor in other countries. I wish someone put more sense into them than provoke the innocent teenagers to put the buildings on fire.

May peace be with us!