(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - An Austrian daily quoted Bahraini revolutionary poetess Ayat Al-Ghermezi in its Monday edition as saying relatives of Bahraini King Hamad were among the torturers of arrested protesters in her country.
Ms. Ghermezi who is in Vienna, in an interview with Courier daily seriously criticized the inhumane behavior observed against Bahraini revolutionaries in prisons of Ale-Khalifa clan.
The daily wrote: This twenty-year old Arab poetess has been among the renowned political activists during her country’s more than a year long revolution. She has therefore been tortured and kept in solitary cell.
The Courier reporter has asked Ayat, “You have been reciting your poems for the Bahraini demonstrators for more than a year. What experience do you have respectively?”
The young revolutionary Bahraini lady replied, “After reciting my poems for the demonstrators and getting home my family members suggested that I had better move to a relative’s home and begin living in hiding. On March 20th, 2011 a large number of police forces invaded our home, beat up my brother black and blue, and threatened my entire family members that they would kill everyone, beginning with my four brothers. They also warned that they would come back to find Ayat, but next time they would not be as nice as this time! My father finally gave up and summoned me home where they were.”
She added, “They arrested me and their harsh behavior began right inside the vehicle in which I was being carried to prison. I was imprisoned in Manama. Getting beaten up was in my daily schedule. I was never even permitted to sit down, or to lie down on the floor. At nights I had to lean against a wall when I was dead tired. I was forced to swallow my food portion which was extremely polluted and I was beaten up more severely if I refused to eat, and their argument was: if you want to die you had better die outside this prison.”
The Bahraini revolutionary added, “I was kept in a solitary cell all alone. I was there without ever being taken to a court, and therefore I knew I must be there temporarily. Although no one had ever asked me a single question the prison keepers were always swearing at me, using very indecent words. They said that I was a blot against the reputation of my country, because I was a Shi’a. They forced me to belittle myself and my other family members along with them using very shameful literature. On the eighth day they took me to a room as they had blindfolded me. The piece of cloth with which they had shut my eyes slipped down for a few seconds and I saw the woman who was beating me. She was one of the close relatives of King Hamad. Her name is Noor al-Khalifa. She is a close relative of the king’s wife. In that room she tortured me for a long period using electric shock till I lost conscience.”
Ayat Al-Ghermezi added, “In the prison they threatened that they would severe my tongue. They hit me severely on the head using a long and wide wooden object and many of them used to spit in my mouth.”
She said, “In June, 2011 I was finally taken to a court and sentenced to a year behind the bars, but a month later due to the pressure of the world public opinion and the insistence of the Bahraini protesters I was freed and put under house arrest. I was told to forget all I had seen and heard and threatened that otherwise they would come back and take me to the same hell!
“They treat us as if we were no more than insects. Tolerating their nasty behavior is beyond the power of normal human beings.”
The Austrian reporter asked Ms. Ghermezi weather she thought the reforms program of King Hamad bin-Isa Al-Khalifa would lead to calming the social turmoil in Bahrain?
She replied, “I would only laugh at such a question. We have all heard such worlds many times. The King’s family members are all a bunch of liars.”
Pointing out that she would get back to Bahrain in very near future, the brave Bahraini revolutionary poetess emphasized, “Any nation that would upraise against a despotic regime and resist wholeheartedly would definitely embrace victory. We, too, in Bahrain would achieve our goals. It is necessary to give victims in the path though, and each of the Bahraini revolutionaries is ready to be sacrificed in this way. I can therefore foresee a bright future for my country and prosperous lives for the Bahraini nation.”
Ayat Hassan Mohammed Al-Qurmezi ; the surname is also transcribed Al-Qormezi, al-Ghermezi (born c. 1991, Sadad, Bahrain) is a poet and student at the at the University of Bahrain Teaching Institute in Bahrain.
Al-Ghermezi became famous in Bahrain and internationally after reading out a poem criticizing Bahraini government policies to the Pearl Square gathering of pro-democracy protesters. After the poem was widely circulated via social media she and her family were subjected to harassment and death threats.
She was arrested and detained in conditions of secrecy and rumors of her death in custody led to protests by Iranian activists. She was subjected to torture while in custody but was eventually tried on charges of inciting hatred of the Bahraini regime and insulting members of the royal family. International human rights organizations described her detention and trial as illustrating the brutality of the Bahraini authorities. She was sentenced to a term of imprisonment, which she was allowed to serve under house arrest.
On Wednesday, February 23, 2011, during the early days of the 2011–2012 Bahraini uprising Ayat Al-Ghermezi delivered a poem from the podium to the gathering of pro-democracy demonstrators at the Pearl Square that was critical of government policies and specifically those of Khalifa ibn Salman Al Khalifa, the prime minister of Bahrain.
On March 6, 2011, she read out another poem to the crowd at Pearl Square which criticized King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. One verse included the lines:
'We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery. “Don't you hear their cries? Don't you hear their screams?'
Another verse imagined a dialogue between the Devil and the King in which the Devil, Hamad's 'best and most courageous pupil', says: “Hamad, your people have shaken me.
“Don't you hear their cries?”
The student quickly rose to fame through the media channels of Youtube, Twitter and through BlackBerry Messenger as her poem was spread throughout Bahrain and the rest of the world. Since then, Ayat has been exposed to several forms of harassment and death threats that included herself and her family. Her personal information has been published through emails and Blackberry messages, by Bahraini regime officials. She has reportedly received numerous phone calls threatening her life and safety.
On the morning of March 29, 2011, riot police accompanied by female police officers with orders to detain Ayat Al-Ghermezi forced their way into the family home. Not finding her there, the police proceeded to ransack the house, reportedly telling her mother that they intended to arrest Ayat “even if she is hidden in the depths of the earth”.
The next day Ayat Al-Ghermezi was arrested after police raided her parents' house a second time and forced four of Ayat's brothers at gunpoint to lie on the floor. After one police officer shouted at their father 'If you do not tell us where Ayat is in fifteen minutes, we will kill each of your sons in front of your eyes – I have orders to do so'. Ayat's parents felt they had no choice but to ask her to return home.
When she returned she was taken away in a car with two plain-clothes security officials, a man and a woman, both wearing masks. She subsequently reported how they began immediately to beat her, threatening that she would be raped and sexually assaulted and that degrading photographs of her would be posted on the internet.
The family described the days that followed as a period of intense psychological torture. The riot troops and police (whose identities had been concealed) who took Ayat away had told Ayat's mother Sa'ada that after she had been interrogated and signed some documents, the family would be allowed to collect her from Al-Howra police station and take her home. They heard nothing more. Sa'ada went from police station to police station trying to obtain information about her daughter until she was eventually advised to file a missing persons report. She complained about the absurdity of this advice when it was the police themselves who had taken Ayat away.
Pictures of Ayat began to turn up on dating and pornographic websites. The family heard rumours that she had been raped or been killed.
Eventually Sa'ada was allowed to speak to Ayat on the telephone. Ayat told her that she had been forced to sign a false confession. Sa'ada was told in confidence that Ayat was in a military hospital being treated for injuries inflicted while she was tortured. Ayat told her mother that she had been interrogated several times at the interrogation centre where she was taken after her arrest.
A video was broadcast on Bahraini state television of Ayat giving her name and saying that she was a Shia and hated ‘the Sunnis.
Ayat was expelled from university, apparently as part of a government purge of students and university employees accused of supporting the protests.
Following her arrest Ayat Al-Ghermezi was detained for nine days in a tiny and extremely cold cell. She believed that from time to time a gas of some kind was circulated through the cell's air conditioning system which made her feel that she was suffocating. She was struck around the face with electric cable and made to clean lavatories with her bare hands. Some reports indicated that she was also threatened with rape. Throughout this time the police made no attempt to carry out any genuine interrogation. On June 21, 2011, she made a televised apology to the king and the prime minister.
According to Ayat Al-Ghermezi's brother, Yousif Mohammed, her treatment in prison improved during the period before the trial.
Courtesy Wikipedia for the background on Ms. Ghermezi
/129
Ms. Ghermezi who is in Vienna, in an interview with Courier daily seriously criticized the inhumane behavior observed against Bahraini revolutionaries in prisons of Ale-Khalifa clan.
The daily wrote: This twenty-year old Arab poetess has been among the renowned political activists during her country’s more than a year long revolution. She has therefore been tortured and kept in solitary cell.
The Courier reporter has asked Ayat, “You have been reciting your poems for the Bahraini demonstrators for more than a year. What experience do you have respectively?”
The young revolutionary Bahraini lady replied, “After reciting my poems for the demonstrators and getting home my family members suggested that I had better move to a relative’s home and begin living in hiding. On March 20th, 2011 a large number of police forces invaded our home, beat up my brother black and blue, and threatened my entire family members that they would kill everyone, beginning with my four brothers. They also warned that they would come back to find Ayat, but next time they would not be as nice as this time! My father finally gave up and summoned me home where they were.”
She added, “They arrested me and their harsh behavior began right inside the vehicle in which I was being carried to prison. I was imprisoned in Manama. Getting beaten up was in my daily schedule. I was never even permitted to sit down, or to lie down on the floor. At nights I had to lean against a wall when I was dead tired. I was forced to swallow my food portion which was extremely polluted and I was beaten up more severely if I refused to eat, and their argument was: if you want to die you had better die outside this prison.”
The Bahraini revolutionary added, “I was kept in a solitary cell all alone. I was there without ever being taken to a court, and therefore I knew I must be there temporarily. Although no one had ever asked me a single question the prison keepers were always swearing at me, using very indecent words. They said that I was a blot against the reputation of my country, because I was a Shi’a. They forced me to belittle myself and my other family members along with them using very shameful literature. On the eighth day they took me to a room as they had blindfolded me. The piece of cloth with which they had shut my eyes slipped down for a few seconds and I saw the woman who was beating me. She was one of the close relatives of King Hamad. Her name is Noor al-Khalifa. She is a close relative of the king’s wife. In that room she tortured me for a long period using electric shock till I lost conscience.”
Ayat Al-Ghermezi added, “In the prison they threatened that they would severe my tongue. They hit me severely on the head using a long and wide wooden object and many of them used to spit in my mouth.”
She said, “In June, 2011 I was finally taken to a court and sentenced to a year behind the bars, but a month later due to the pressure of the world public opinion and the insistence of the Bahraini protesters I was freed and put under house arrest. I was told to forget all I had seen and heard and threatened that otherwise they would come back and take me to the same hell!
“They treat us as if we were no more than insects. Tolerating their nasty behavior is beyond the power of normal human beings.”
The Austrian reporter asked Ms. Ghermezi weather she thought the reforms program of King Hamad bin-Isa Al-Khalifa would lead to calming the social turmoil in Bahrain?
She replied, “I would only laugh at such a question. We have all heard such worlds many times. The King’s family members are all a bunch of liars.”
Pointing out that she would get back to Bahrain in very near future, the brave Bahraini revolutionary poetess emphasized, “Any nation that would upraise against a despotic regime and resist wholeheartedly would definitely embrace victory. We, too, in Bahrain would achieve our goals. It is necessary to give victims in the path though, and each of the Bahraini revolutionaries is ready to be sacrificed in this way. I can therefore foresee a bright future for my country and prosperous lives for the Bahraini nation.”
Ayat Hassan Mohammed Al-Qurmezi ; the surname is also transcribed Al-Qormezi, al-Ghermezi (born c. 1991, Sadad, Bahrain) is a poet and student at the at the University of Bahrain Teaching Institute in Bahrain.
Al-Ghermezi became famous in Bahrain and internationally after reading out a poem criticizing Bahraini government policies to the Pearl Square gathering of pro-democracy protesters. After the poem was widely circulated via social media she and her family were subjected to harassment and death threats.
She was arrested and detained in conditions of secrecy and rumors of her death in custody led to protests by Iranian activists. She was subjected to torture while in custody but was eventually tried on charges of inciting hatred of the Bahraini regime and insulting members of the royal family. International human rights organizations described her detention and trial as illustrating the brutality of the Bahraini authorities. She was sentenced to a term of imprisonment, which she was allowed to serve under house arrest.
On Wednesday, February 23, 2011, during the early days of the 2011–2012 Bahraini uprising Ayat Al-Ghermezi delivered a poem from the podium to the gathering of pro-democracy demonstrators at the Pearl Square that was critical of government policies and specifically those of Khalifa ibn Salman Al Khalifa, the prime minister of Bahrain.
On March 6, 2011, she read out another poem to the crowd at Pearl Square which criticized King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. One verse included the lines:
'We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery. “Don't you hear their cries? Don't you hear their screams?'
Another verse imagined a dialogue between the Devil and the King in which the Devil, Hamad's 'best and most courageous pupil', says: “Hamad, your people have shaken me.
“Don't you hear their cries?”
The student quickly rose to fame through the media channels of Youtube, Twitter and through BlackBerry Messenger as her poem was spread throughout Bahrain and the rest of the world. Since then, Ayat has been exposed to several forms of harassment and death threats that included herself and her family. Her personal information has been published through emails and Blackberry messages, by Bahraini regime officials. She has reportedly received numerous phone calls threatening her life and safety.
On the morning of March 29, 2011, riot police accompanied by female police officers with orders to detain Ayat Al-Ghermezi forced their way into the family home. Not finding her there, the police proceeded to ransack the house, reportedly telling her mother that they intended to arrest Ayat “even if she is hidden in the depths of the earth”.
The next day Ayat Al-Ghermezi was arrested after police raided her parents' house a second time and forced four of Ayat's brothers at gunpoint to lie on the floor. After one police officer shouted at their father 'If you do not tell us where Ayat is in fifteen minutes, we will kill each of your sons in front of your eyes – I have orders to do so'. Ayat's parents felt they had no choice but to ask her to return home.
When she returned she was taken away in a car with two plain-clothes security officials, a man and a woman, both wearing masks. She subsequently reported how they began immediately to beat her, threatening that she would be raped and sexually assaulted and that degrading photographs of her would be posted on the internet.
The family described the days that followed as a period of intense psychological torture. The riot troops and police (whose identities had been concealed) who took Ayat away had told Ayat's mother Sa'ada that after she had been interrogated and signed some documents, the family would be allowed to collect her from Al-Howra police station and take her home. They heard nothing more. Sa'ada went from police station to police station trying to obtain information about her daughter until she was eventually advised to file a missing persons report. She complained about the absurdity of this advice when it was the police themselves who had taken Ayat away.
Pictures of Ayat began to turn up on dating and pornographic websites. The family heard rumours that she had been raped or been killed.
Eventually Sa'ada was allowed to speak to Ayat on the telephone. Ayat told her that she had been forced to sign a false confession. Sa'ada was told in confidence that Ayat was in a military hospital being treated for injuries inflicted while she was tortured. Ayat told her mother that she had been interrogated several times at the interrogation centre where she was taken after her arrest.
A video was broadcast on Bahraini state television of Ayat giving her name and saying that she was a Shia and hated ‘the Sunnis.
Ayat was expelled from university, apparently as part of a government purge of students and university employees accused of supporting the protests.
Following her arrest Ayat Al-Ghermezi was detained for nine days in a tiny and extremely cold cell. She believed that from time to time a gas of some kind was circulated through the cell's air conditioning system which made her feel that she was suffocating. She was struck around the face with electric cable and made to clean lavatories with her bare hands. Some reports indicated that she was also threatened with rape. Throughout this time the police made no attempt to carry out any genuine interrogation. On June 21, 2011, she made a televised apology to the king and the prime minister.
According to Ayat Al-Ghermezi's brother, Yousif Mohammed, her treatment in prison improved during the period before the trial.
Courtesy Wikipedia for the background on Ms. Ghermezi
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