Her father was sentenced for life. Her uncles were tortured. Her sister is in and out of prison. Maryam al-Khawaja accounts for her journey as a human rights activist from uber-repressive Bahrain.
Her father, prominent democratic activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, was abducted at gunpoint, tortured, and then sentenced to life. At one point or another, all her family members (sister, uncle, brothers in law…) and colleagues from the Bahrain Center for Human Rights were arrested and/or brutalized by the police. As for Maryam al-Khawaja, 25, she has been touring the world for the last 2 years to plead the cause of Human rights in Bahrain. She met Hillary Clinton, spoke at at the UN, gave countless interviews and was profiled on every media that counts.
And then she decided to return to Bahrain, in January 2013.
Because, she said, she had to “coordinate on the ground” with her fellow activists, and wanted to see her father and her sister again. The world held its breath, but she finally wasn’t arrested and was able to leave the country after a 2 weeks stay.
Back to Denmark, where she resides, she gave this rare, intimate 15-minutes interview, evoking her personal feelings. “I know I am shielded by the media attention I get”, she says. And she adds: “This is unfair for all the other brave activists”.
See the interview:
