Bahrain restricts Shiite Ashura observances amid security crackdown

Bahrain tightened restrictions on Shiite Ashura observances as officials folded the holy day into a broader security crackdown tied to the Israel-Iran war crisis. The moves landed in a country where Shiites make up 55% to 70% of citizens and where sectarian tensions carry added weight because Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

Ashura falls on the 10th day of Muharram and marks the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, at Karbala in 680 AD. For Shiites worldwide, it is a central day of mourning, and in Bahrain it has long overlapped with political grievance, especially among families who say they face discrimination in hiring, politics and the security services.

The current restrictions are the latest in a string of measures directed at Shiite citizens whom Bahraini authorities have repeatedly accused of loyalty to Iran. Since the 2011 uprising, the government has cast unrest in sectarian terms and blamed Tehran for stirring instability in the island kingdom, even as Bahrain’s own independent inquiry found excessive force and torture in the crackdown that followed the protests.

That inquiry, established on June 29, 2011, and released on November 23, 2011, investigated the unrest that began in February 2011. Led by Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry said security forces used excessive force and torture, and it found no “discernable link” between the demonstrations and Iran based on information provided by the government.

The 2011 protests were driven largely by Shiite demonstrators calling for political reform from the Sunni monarchy of Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and they were crushed with help from Saudi-led Gulf security forces. Since then, Bahrain has seen low-level unrest, repeated arrests of opposition figures and a steady narrowing of public space for Shiite activism, including around the outlawed Al-Wefaq movement and its leader, Ali Salman.