Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Bahrain

Fossil Fueled Comfort—The History and Cost of Air Conditioning in Bahrain — A building with many air conditioners, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2018. Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Corbis via Getty ImagesAn aerial view of Awali, Bahrain. Official image from Bapco’s website. Date unknown.A Kuwaiti campaign to raise awareness of the risk delivery people face during the summer. By artist Talal Al-Maian, 2019.

MER Article

Fossil Fueled Comfort—The History and Cost of Air Conditioning in Bahrain

How AC has reshaped the urban landscape and labor politics of the Gulf.

Marwa Koheji • 9 min read

From the Oil Weapon to Boycott, Mobilizing in Support of Palestine in the Gulf — Protesters during a solidarity sit-in with the Gaza Strip, in Manama, Bahrain, on November 17, 2023. Mazen Mahdi/AFP via Getty ImagesAn Instagram post by BDS Kuwait calling on people in the region to use the “weapon of boycott” against global companies enabling Israel’s war on Gaza.

MER Article

From the Oil Weapon to Boycott, Mobilizing in Support of Palestine in the Gulf

50 years after the 1973 oil embargo, some Gulf citizens oppose normalization with their wallets.

Samar Alwan • 5 min read

MER Article

Uncovering Protection Rackets through Leaktivism

The small Gulf Arab state of Bahrain is using digital-era tools of surveillance, deception and repression to quell popular dissent. But a group of well-meaning tech-savvy geeks are mobilizing new digitally enhanced methods to expose who is behind this repression and how it operates today.

Ala’a Shehabi • 17 min read

MER Article

Send My Regards to Your Mother

I. I sometimes refer to my college years in Saudi Arabia as “doing time.” But early in those years I did some time that almost did me in—and my mother, too. I had spent high school in Bahrain as a boarder. My father pressured me to attend university near our house in Dhahran, where he worked as a

Zein El-Amine • 25 min read

Current Analysis

Doubling Down on Dictatorship in the Middle East

For a moment, four years ago, it seemed that dictators in the Middle East would soon be a thing of the past. Back then, it looked like the United States would have to make good on its declared support for democracy, as millions of Tunisians, Egyptians, Bahrainis, Yemenis, and others rose up to reje

Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 3 min read

Current Analysis

Youth of the Gulf, Youth of Palestine

I recently came across two accounts of Arab youth that fly in the face of conventional wisdom. One is Kristin Diwan’s issue brief on youth activism [http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/images/publications/Breaking_Taboos.pdf] in the Arab Gulf states for the Atlantic Council, and the other is a documentar

Ted Swedenburg • 6 min read

Current Analysis

(No) Dialogue in Bahrain

In the run-up to the third anniversary of the Bahraini uprising on February 14, 2011, mass protests with tens of thousands of participants again engulfed the small kingdom. At the same time, a number of contacts between the opposition and the royal family sparked hopes of renewed high-level negotiat

Toby Matthiesen • 11 min read

Current Analysis

Seeing Through the Fog

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was full of tough talk when he visited the island kingdom of Bahrain in early December. The United States, he vowed, will continue to guard “the free flow of energy and commerce” from the Persian Gulf and keep Iran nuclear-free, through the presence of 35,000 US mil

Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 2 min read

MER Article

Embracing Crisis in the Gulf

All claims to the contrary, the Persian Gulf monarchies have been deeply affected by the Arab revolutionary ferment of 2011-2012. Bahrain may be the only country to experience its own sustained upheaval, but the impact has also been felt elsewhere. Demands for a more participatory politics are on th

Toby Jones • 9 min read

Current Analysis

Operation Lip Service

The popular uprising in Bahrain shows no signs of going away. The royal family tried crushing the revolt, importing shock troops from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. It tried jailing important figures in the opposition, such as human rights activist ‘Abd al-Hadi al-Khawaja, who as of early May had been

Chris Toensing • 2 min read

Current Analysis

In the Kingdom of Tear Gas

The talk of Bahrain at present is talk -- the possible renewal of dialogue between the government and the opposition -- but the reality is that street protests, after simmering in outlying villages for months, have begun to heat up in the capital of Manama.

Gregg Carlstrom • 14 min read

Current Analysis

Bahrain's Sunni Awakening

Bahrain’s bout with political unrest is nearing its one-year anniversary. Though there are multiple parties to the protracted conflict, analysts continue to focus almost exclusively on a single dyad, Sunni vs. Shi‘i. To some, the ongoing mobilization of Bahraini Shi‘a since February 14, 2011 is a co

Justin Gengler • 12 min read