Twenty-six of the forty-five women and girls who were arrested on Friday for taking part in riots in the City Center Shopping Mall have been released from detention, according to IAA statement.
Widely distributed film of their action on Friday, the day before bye-elections were held in Bahrain, shows the women racing through the mall, causing panic among families carrying out their weekend shopping.
The Bahrain Interior Ministry Assistant Under-Secretary for Legal Affairs denied allegations that the women arrested in connection with the incidents were being ill-treated in detention.
He stressed the ministry’s keenness to enforce the law, which derives its spirit from Bahrain’s customs and traditions to preserve women’s dignity.
“Those distorting the truth must know that protecting women and preserving their dignity requires them not to incite women to illegal practices,” he said. Witnesses of Friday’s riot in the shopping mall said that men were seen leading the protests from the mall’s upper level, directing the women’s actions.
Nine Bahraini women, more than ever before, put their names forward to stand as candidates for Saturday’s bye-elections, which were held because of the resignation in February of all eighteen al-Wefaq former Members of Parliament.
One of the senior Al-Wefaq leaders, Sayed Jameel Kadhem, has meanwhile condemned the announcement by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Sunday that women will now be allowed to vote there. Al-Wefaq has yet to have any female contestants standing for Parliament.
“In Bahrain women’s rights are promoted as so important,” an IAA spokesman, said. It is sad that those elements boycotting the bye-elections and calling for more democracy in Bahrain should make calls for denying this democratic right for women. This is especially sad at a time when women were being used by unknown groups to cause such disruption for families peacefully carrying out their weekend shopping.