Fadhila Mubarak

Democracy activist, Person

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Who is Fadhila Mubarak?

Fadhila Mubarak is a Bahraini democracy activist. On 18 May 2011, she became the first female activist to be convicted for a role in the Bahraini uprising, and was named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

On 27 March 2011, Mubarak was driving with her 8-year-old son and her 14- and 15-year-old nieces in the car when she was stopped near Riffa by a police checkpoint. A police officer told her that she was "playing music calling for the overthrow of the regime", and asked her to turn down the volume. Mubarak refused, instead asking the officer for his identification. According to the police officers at the scene, Mubarak then stepped from her vehicle, grabbed the shirt of an officer, and shoved him. Mubarak, in contrast, alleges that after being insulted and cursed by security officers, a man in civilian clothing tried to force her into a car; not knowing that he was a security officer, she resisted and was struck in the head by the officer.

Mubarak was then taken to a police station in Rifaa. She later stated that she was beaten by policewomen while in custody there, before being transferred to a police station in Isa Town, where she was beaten again. After authorities discovered that she had participated in the March protests at Pearl Roundabout, as well as a poem she had written about revolution and freedom for her son, she was charged with "assault on a public officer", "incitement for hatred of the regime", "participation in a rally with the intent to commit crimes", and "undermining public order" by Bahrain's National Safety Court of First Instance, a military court. On 18 May 2011, she was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. Amnesty International reported that she was denied a lawyer both before and during her trial, meeting her lawyer for the first time one week after receiving her sentence. On 8 June 2011, her sentence was reduced by an appeals court to eighteen months' imprisonment. This sentence was upheld by a court of cassation on 30 January 2012. Mubarak's family expressed concern for her health, as she was receiving treatment for ovarian cysts shortly before her imprisonment.

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Nationality
  • Bahrain
Profession

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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