#bahrain #ireland #uk @kc_spencer #scotland
Listen to Rula Al Saffar , the president of the Bahraini Nurses Association, who wrote to the Philadelphia Inquirer:

This week, I expect to hear if I will be going to prison for 15 years. The verdict on my appeal, as well as those of 19 other medics convicted in a sham Bahraini military trial last year, is due on Thursday. The Bahraini regime targeted us for treating protesters who were injured in democracy protests.

I lived and worked in the United States for many years, some spent studying at Widener University in Chester. It’s where I learned to volunteer, and last year, when demonstrations erupted in Bahrain, that’s what I did. Salmaniya Medical Complex, the country’s main public hospital, was overwhelmed by protesters hurt by regime forces, so I went to the emergency room to help treat them.

Several weeks later, on entering a government office, I was blindfolded and handcuffed. Over five months of detention, I was beaten, electrocuted, and sexually harassed. Then I was convicted. All just for doing my job.

Al Saffar’s charges were dismissed but nine of her medical colleagues had their convictions upheld. As she warns us:

I understand that America has strategic interests in the region. But Americans should consider the strategic impact of siding with a brutal dictatorship. The United States is losing an entire generation of people not just in Bahrain, but across the Middle East.

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