Hasan Jamali/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.On Friday,
September 23, the inaugural combat sports event entitled Brave Combat Federation (BCF) is taking place in Khalifa Sports City in Isa Town, Bahrain. The
event, which features a headlining bout between Iraq’s Rami Aziz and Jordan’s
Abdulkareem Selwady, represents the small Island kingdom’s attempt to become a
significant player in the world of mixed martial arts. However, it also
represents an attempt at sports diplomacy to distract international
stakeholders from ongoing human rights abuses in Bahrain.
Brave
Combat Federation was founded by Sheikh Khaled Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the fifth
son of Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa. Prince Khaled began his career
as a military man with the rank of first lieutenant. He then focused his
attention on local sports, where he is now the first deputy chairman of the
Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and the founder of KHK MMA, a mixed
martial arts gym that covers the costs of its fighters’ training fees and
medical bills.
Over the
past few months, Prince Khaled has been seen supporting his team, providing ice
buckets for his teammates, and even competing in an amateur bout himself.
However, despite his seemingly positive vision for the sport, questions have
been raised about Bahrain’s shocking human rights violations and how the
nation’s politics intersects with their growing interest in sports. Evidently,
Bahrain has continued to use the cultural effects of sports for domestic policy
and international relations. It has also arguably used sports as a tool to distract from
the last five years of tension and turmoil.
Allegations of torture & royal immunity
Sheikh
Khaled’s full brother, Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, is also heavily
immersed in sports. He is the president of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, the Bahrain Royal
Equestrian and Endurance Federation and the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports. He also happens to be a fan of
endurance racing and won a silver medal at the Asian Games in
Doha before he led
the Bahrain National Endurance team to an eighth place finish in the 2007 European
Open. Sheikh Nasser’s most recent venture was launching the Bahrain Cycling Team. Yet despite his attempt to
increase Bahrain’s state prestige through success in sports, various
allegations against Prince Nasser have arisen following the Arab Spring
uprising in 2011.
Sheikh
Nasser, Commander of Bahrain's Royal Guard, was accused of torture and various
other human rights abuses during the 2011 uprising in Bahrain. One unnamed
Bahraini citizen who claimed to be tortured by the Prince himself fled to the
United Kingdom and received refugee status. The torture victim currently seeks the
Prince’s arrest
upon his next visit to Britain. Despite the allegations, Sheikh Nasser attended
the London 2012 Olympic Games and was allowed to return home with little
trouble. By 2014, however, the High Court of London declared Sheikh Nasser no longer
immune from prosecution.
While
Sheikh Nasser was able to disappear from the public eye following the Olympics,
the announcement of the Bahrain Cycling Team, which was given a budget of between £11.5m and £13.7m, rekindled past grievances and
rehashed his unsavory past. The Bahrain Institute for Human Rights and
Democracy (Bird) claimed that this was merely an attempt for the Prince to “whitewash” his past.
Brian
Cookson, president of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), also reminded
readers about how Sheikh Nasser abused his position as the president of several
sports institutions to quash athletes who attempted to participate in the
popular uprising.
“Prince
Nasser was at the head of systemic punitive measures against athletes. In all,
some 120 athletes and club personnel were suspended across the sports of
football, basketball, handball, volleyball, bodybuilding and snooker, including
27 members of national sports teams. At least 22 were arbitrarily arrested
between April and June 2011, with some alleging that they were tortured.” (h/t Cycling Tips)
During the
uprising, Nasser appeared on State TV and declared that “whoever calls for the fall of the
regime, may a wall fall on his head … whether he is an athlete, socialite or
politician, whatever he is, he will be held accountable at this time. Today is
the judgment day.”
While
Nasser’s participation in sports will likely continue, his trajectory is a
reminder of how governments control sports and manipulate athletes for
political gain and socialization.
While
Nasser’s participation in sports will likely continue, his trajectory is a
reminder of how governments control sports and manipulate athletes for
political gain and sociali influence. His influence over sports helped limit the
impact of local athletes on the 2011 uprising. His younger brother, Sheikh
Khaled, will now use sports to distract the international scene from Bahrain’s
ongoing struggles.
Oppression, suppression and censorship
Ever since Bahrain’s
monarchy was able to supress the 2011 uprising, they have faced an ongoing
battle with critics of the regime. Their response to the criticism has isolated
them from the international community and left them with little hope of securing
western-type legitimacy.
According
to Human Rights Watch, Bahrain remains “highly problematic” because of their willingness to imprison
peaceful demonstrators and prosecute the opposition. Activists and protestors
suffer from “disproportionate force” and are prosecuted on ridiculous charges
such as “inciting demonstrations” or “insulting the king.” The Bahraini
government has also taken to revoking citizenship from offenders and has used that tactic as a
threat against those who oppose their rule.
208
Bahrainis had their passports revoked in 2015 alone.
However, it
was the treatment of activist Nabeel Rajab that garnered the most international
attention. The Bahraini human rights activist was most recently arrested on
June 13, 2016 on the charge of “spreading false news” on his twitter account. He was hospitalized after spending over two
weeks in solitary confinement.
By that
time, Rajab had already been thrown in and released from prison on numerous
occasions, including a two-year sentence between 2012-14 over similar charges.
The Bahraini government continues to periodically arrest Rajab, detaining him
without bail, and releasing him before levying new charges against him such as “inciting hatred.” Rajab remains in prison at the present day, and could face up to fifteen years for free expression. The
Bahraini government continues to postpone his trial.
The
plethora of ongoing human rights abuses in Bahrain does not stop there. The Al-Wefaq
National Islamic Society Liberties and Human Rights Department (LHRD) released a 149-page report several months ago that detailed
the regime’s abuses in 2015 alone. The LHRD noted 6,403 protests, 2,035 of
which were squashed by police using teargas and shotguns. It also observed 1765 arrests, including 120 children, in 2015 due to the political
crisis.
Though
Bahrain clamped down on freedom of expression several years ago when it imposed
a ban on demonstrations and created its arbitrary anti-terrorism laws (conveniently
without properly defining terrorism), it continues to lash out at the
opposition through the use of torture and ill-treatment. According to the LHRD
report, Bahrain continues to use sleep deprivation, solitary confinement,
sexual abuse, electrocution, and forced disappearances amongst other tactics to
spread fear.
Yet despite
Bahrain’s damaged reputation and polarized position on the international
scene, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall
will make an official visit to the Middle Eastern nation. This surprising endorsement gives the
impression that Bahrain’s abuses are of little concern to the British monarchy.
Therefore, it comes as little surprise that Bahrain’s royalty continues to increase
their visibility through sports.
Sports diplomacy
Jonathan Brady/PA Archive/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.Much like
any authoritarian regime, sports in Bahrain are not just used for entertainment
purposes, but for political gain and as a mechanism to distort reality and
present a fabricated image of peace and prosperity on the international scene.
Bahrain has been at the forefront of this sports diplomacy tactic for several
years. This includes their efforts with the Formula-1 race, the Olympic Games,
and, most recently, the Bahrain Cycling Team.
Sports in Bahrain are not just used for entertainment
purposes, but for political gain and as a mechanism to distort reality and
present a fabricated image of peace and prosperity on the international scene.
When
Bahrain first hosted the Formula-1 event, it was in an attempt to transform its
image from that of a relatively unknown island nation to a destination location
for tourists and sports enthusiasts. It helped boost their economy and was
later used to distract citizens from the popular uprising in 2011-12. Bahrain
also went out of its way to offer passports to athletes from Jamaica and other
locations in an attempt to boost their roster for the Olympic Games. Their
interest in the acquisition of medals goes hand-in-hand with their need for
state prestige.
The Bahrain
government has also used sports as a tool to hinder their population and quench
protests. Sports events and teams were suspended during the 2011 uprising and
were seen as a threat to the monarchy because it allowed groups to gather together and discuss ongoing concerns. Instead, athletes were frequently exhorted to becme propaganda tools to defend the monarchy and their existence.
Sheikh
Khaled bin Hamad Al Khalifa’s vision of an international MMA promotion based
out of Bahrain debuted on his twenty-seventh birthday and garnered attention
from the western world. However, it also offered a distraction from the ongoing
tension and human rights abuses visible in the seemingly fragmented Kingdom of
Bahrain. Successful sporting events can only enhance international relations, when the need to disguise their true
nature is limited.
Therefore,
when Bahrain hosts its next mixed martial arts event or Formula 1 race, remember
its knack for oppression and the great lengths it has gone to, to protect the
interests of the regime.
