Four hunger striking females in Bahrain prison suffer from deteriorating health

The women are demanding an end to an intensifying campaign of ill-treatment as a precondition for halting their hunger strike.

According to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), one of the hunger strikers, Hajar Mansoor Hassan, is “between life and death”.

Hajar is the mother-in-law of the exiled Bahraini human rights defender and director of advocacy at BIRD, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei.

Along with her son and nephew, she faces a 3-year prison sentence for what rights groups describe as a reprisal against Alwadaei’s activism.

In the early hours of Friday morning, Hajar’s condition deteriorated to the point where prison authorities felt compelled to transfer her to hospital. But after the ambulance arrived, the prison’s warden insisted on having Hajar handcuffed. Hajar refused and was checked by a doctor in her cell instead.

Another hunger striker, Medina Ali, was also examined by a doctor on Friday, while two others – Najah Al-Sheikh and Amira Al-Qashami – refused medical treatment.

Abuses in Bahrain’s prisons have become alarmingly more frequent in recent months prompting a number of mass hunger strikes.


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