Bahraini Police Forced A Young Woman to Take Off Clothes, Filmed Her Naked June 19, 2012 The

sister of the detained Ms Zahra Al-Sheikh has caused uproar after she had re vealed that a policewoman forced Zahra to take off her clothes and filmed her na ked by her mobile. She said the officer Isa Al-Majali beat her, took off her hea d cover, abused her verbally, and forced her to confess of false charges. Riot police brutally assaulted Zahra (21 years old) before arresting her after s he had been caught filming an attack on the protesters on Friday. She was detain ed in Budaiya Police Station until taken to the Public Prosecution after a charg e of assaulting policemen had been fabricated against her. Her family was denied seeing her before being taken to the Public Prosecution. H er sister said she was transported to hospital after the beatings she had gone t hrough. Zahra phone her family from the Police Station and told them what she had suffer ed. Her sister reported that a large group of the regime mercenaries surrounded her and beat her brutally on the head and back. Then Officer Isa Al-Majali inter rogated her who beat her and took off her head cover, abused her verbally, and f orced her to confess of false charges. The young woman was put in jail with other women accused of prostitution and oth er similar crimes. Her sister said that Zahra phoned crying and asked for help. The Public Prosecution decided to release Zahra on bail of BHD 50, however, her family was kicked out of the Police Station after they arrived to take her. The family was told that the judge revoked his decision claiming it was wrong and Za hra must be detained for a week. Her lawyer contacted the Prosecutor General who claimed that he had revoked Zahras release decision after a video footage had be en circulated that proved she assaulted policemen. Later, her sister caused uproar, after she revealed that a policewoman forced Za hra to take off her clothes in detention and filmed her by her mobile phone. The policewoman then went to Zahra and said to her that she deleted the video sayin g she did that jokingly. Zahras sister explained that the policewoman took Zahra as well as a Pilipino wom an inmate into a room, she instructed them to take off their clothes. Zahra ref used, however, the policewoman forced her. The policewoman started to beat the P ilipino woman while she was naked. She stressed that she was not able to recogni ze that policewomen removed their badges that had their names, to avoid suing th em for their ugly acts. Zahra Al-Sheikh is a student in the College of Media & Communication. Last Sunda y 17 June 2012 she was supposed to sit for one of her final exams. She was study ing for her exams while she was in jail, nonetheless, she was not allowed to sit for the exam. Zahra complained of mistreatment and bad food. The Police Station refused to take the clothes that her family had sent to her. Zahras sister commented: In the state of law, institutions, and freedom, men and w omen are arrested, beaten, and their privacy is violated, all of that happens he re in Bahrain. She added: only those who had been in prison would appreciate its o rdeal and bitterness. What crime Zahra did to be beaten that brutal? Did she steal? Did she have a weap on? Murderers and criminals are free and shes behind bars, she wondered and added: There is no law in the country; the authorities are playing around with a whole

nation fate, what would prevent them from playing with a young womans future. The tweeps on twitter wrote much about the young ladys story which is one of a lo ng list of heinous assaults on women by the police since the implementation of t he martial law on 15 March 2011. Bassiounis report listed some of those violation s. Some activists translated the tweets of Zahras sister to English and French, whil e others campaigned against the Jordanian torturer Isa Al-Majali. A Jordanian ac tivists tweeted: Such torturers put us to shame, and all honourable people in Jor dan condemn Majalis behaviour. Wefaq said Zahras arrest comes despite all the calls that the International commun ity raised to evacuate prisons of prisoners of opinion, while the authorities co ntinue to arrest women and leave them in prison in cases that are related to fre edom of expression and right to protest. http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=323187 --------