Bahrain's Uprising: Resistance and Repression in the Gulf

Amid the extensive coverage of the Arab uprisings, the Gulf state of Bahrain has been almost forgotten. Fusing historical and contemporary analysis, Bahrain’s Uprising seeks to fill this gap, examining the ongoing protests and state repression that continues today. Drawing on powerful testimonies, interviews, and conversations from those involved, this broad collection of writings by scholars and activists provides a rarely heard voice of the lived experience of Bahrainis, describing the way in which a sophisticated society, defined by a historical struggle, continues to hamper the efforts of the ruling elite to rebrand itself as a liberal monarchy.

Table of Contents:
Foreword: On the Prelude to the 14 February Uprising - Abdulhadi Khalaf Introduction: Bahrain's Uprising, the Struggle for Democracy in the Gulf - Ala'a Shehabi and Marc Owen Jones Part I: Voices of the Condemned 1. A Trial of Thoughts and Ideas - Ibrahim Sharif 2. God After Ten O'Clock - 'Ali Al Jallawi 3. A Room with a Wiew: An Eyewitness to the Pearl Uprising - Tony Mitchell Part II: Configuring Dissent: Charting Movements, Space, and Self-Representation in Bahrain 4. Shifting Contours of Activism and Possibilities for Justice in Bahrain - Luke G.G. Bhatia and Ala'a Shehabi 5. The Many Afterlives of Lulu: The Story of Bahrain's Pearl Roundabout - Amal Khalaf 6. Tn Tn Ttn and Torture in Bahrain: Puncturing the Spectacle of the 'Arab Spring' - John Horne Part III: Suppressing Dissent in an Acceptable Manner: Modes of Repression, Foreign Involvement and Institutional Violence 7. On the Side of Decency and Democracy: The History of British–Bahraini Relations and Transnational Contestation - Zoe Holman 8. Rotten Apples or Rotten Orchards: Police Deviance, Brutality, and Unaccountability in Bahrain - Marc Owen Jones 9. Social Media, Surveillance, and Cyberpolitics in the Bahrain uprising - Marc Owen Jones

About the Author :
Ala?a Shehabi is a Bahraini writer and researcher. She is a co-founder of Bahrain Watch, an NGO that advocates for accountability and social justice in Bahrain. She previously worked as a policy analyst at RAND Corporation and as a lecturer at the Bahraini Institute for Banking and Finance during the 2011 uprising. Various parts of the book were written during a visiting position at Lund University and a fellowship at the Arab Council for Social Sciences. Marc Owen Jones is a writer researching political repression in Bahrain at Durham University. In addition to teaching Middle East politics, Marc is a member of the advocacy NGO Bahrain Watch and writes a blog on Bahrain. In 2011, he helped to expose fake journalist Liliane Khalil and appeared on Al Jazeera and France 24 to discuss how PR companies are using such figures to spread government propaganda. Ala?a Shehabi is a Bahraini writer and researcher. She is a co-founder of Bahrain Watch, an NGO that advocates for accountability and social justice in Bahrain. She previously worked as a policy analyst at RAND Corporation and as a lecturer at the Bahraini Institute for Banking and Finance during the 2011 uprising. Various parts of the book were written during a visiting position at Lund University and a fellowship at the Arab Council for Social Sciences. Marc Owen Jones is a writer researching political repression in Bahrain at Durham University. In addition to teaching Middle East politics, Marc is a member of the advocacy NGO Bahrain Watch and writes a blog on Bahrain. In 2011, he helped to expose fake journalist Liliane Khalil and appeared on Al Jazeera and France 24 to discuss how PR companies are using such figures to spread government propaganda.

Review :
What binds the essays is, first of all, that they are remarkably well crafted and share a sense of immediacy... (At least one of the contributors is currently imprisoned.) The essays also share an overarching sense of humanity, in that the book focuses on the experience of people, not members of specific religious or national groups. In an effort to address a large hole in Arab Spring analysis, Ala’a Shehabi and Marc Jones have assembled an enlightening compilation of essays addressing the popular Bahraini revolts of 2011. An outstanding volume that fills a chasm in the scholarship on the Arab revolutions and uprisings. Beautifully written, empirically rich, theoretically provocative and meticulously researched, it is a must-read for scholars interested in social movements in Bahrain and more broadly. The book includes compelling activist testimonies and pointed editorial cartoons, also making it an ideal text for classroom teaching. An essential addition to scholarship on the revolts and counter-revolutionary backlashes that have roiled the Arab world since 2011. Through first-person accounts and rigorous analysis, this book teaches us a great deal not only about contentious politics and social movements in Bahrain but about regional geopolitics writ large. Brings together a powerful group of voices, observers and activists, who have worked not only to make sense of events in Bahrain, but who have also tirelessly advocated for justice in one of the region's most tyrannical states. A timely and important volume.