Wednesday, June 8, 2011

POETRY AND PROTEST AS HUMAN RIGHTS



ARRESTED
FOR READING A POEM

during pro-Democracy demonstration
April 2011

Ayat al-Gormezi was forced to give herself up after police raided her parents' house and made four of her brothers lie on the floor at gunpoint
Ayat al-Gormezi was forced to give herself up
when police raided her parents' house


April 20, 2011
Background

News of her death has been circulating, but
I have not secured confirmation or denial
from reliable sources. I have created an email alert,
and will report any credible updates at this blog.

Press TV has received a call from Bahraini local sources 
that the news about the death of the poet Ayat al-Ghermezi is a  rumor-
that it is an attempt by the Bahraini government to discredit media.

June 2 2011
Read this story

-Film of Ayat addressing a cheering crowd of protestors
in Pearl Square at night in February 
showed her to be a confident-sounding young woman in a black abaya.
At one point in her recitation she says "we are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery, we are the people who will destroy the foundation of injustice."
At the end of her poem she addresses King Hamad directly
and says to him of the Bahraini people
"don't you hear their cries, don't you hear their screams."
As she finishes the crowd shouts
"Down with Hamad."
excerpt from report by Patrick Cockburn

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