Artists Speak Out

By Philip Bishop, Artists Speak Out 

Artists Speak Out has started a petition on Change.org urging the United States to make a public statement calling for the release of Ayat al-Gormezi. You can find it here: http://ow.ly/5yTfI 

Ayat's only crime was writing and reading a poem critical of the ruling regime in Bahrain -- a regime who then arrested, tortured and imprisoned her. Ayat is a 20 year-old student-teacher.

The text of the petition is below.

Please rally your support to this cause and have them sign the petition.

Here is the text of a tweet you can use: 

Sign petition urging US to make a public statement calling for the release of #Bahrain's "Freedom #Poet" #Ayat http://ow.ly/5yTfI

Thank you.

Philip Bishop

Artists Speak Out

--------------------------------- 

US: Call for the Immediate Release of Bahrain's Imprisoned "Freedom Poet"

We the signatories of this petition call upon the United States' highest-ranking diplomat in Bahrain, Chargé d’Affaires Stephanie Williams, to make a public statement calling for the immediate release of 20 year-old poet Ayat al-Gormezi who had a one-year prison sentence unjustly imposed on her 12 June 2011 for reading a poem.

Bahrain’s National Safety Court of First Instance claimed in sentencing Ayat that she was guilty of “inciting hatred of the regime and of being involved in a rally to commit crimes.” Masked police arrested Ayat at her home on 30 March for reciting a poem critical of the monarchy during a pro-democracy rally in the capital Manama in February.

Media reports indicate that since being in custody Ayat, a student teacher, has been beaten across the face with an electric cable, spent nine days in a tiny cell with the air conditioning turned to freezing, and was forced to clean with her bare hands toilets just used by police. Almost certainly as a result of this brutal treatment, Ayat on 21 June 2011 made a televised apology to the Bahraini king and prime minster for what she had said and done.

No crime deserves such debasing and inhumane treatment -- and certainly not the "crime" of reciting a poem, no matter how critical it is of the ruling government or its leader. The United States must stand firmly on the side of free speech and the just treatment of detainees in this matter. There is also serious concern that Ayat may face additional charges and be returned to the prison where her abusive interrogation took place. In light of these grave developments, we call on Chargé d’Affaires Stephanie Williams and the US government to make a public statement demanding that the Bahaini government comply with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all the norms of international law and provide al-Gormezi with a speedy release from her unlawful incarceration. 

Written in defense of Ayat

An article written in defense of Ayat by 'Faqeer Bahrani'. Has not been translated yet, unfortunately. 


مظلومة يا آيات

أكل هذا التعذيب و التهديد و الوعيد من اجل تلك الكلمات المسجوعة حيث لا احد يؤمن بالشعر في زمن الشعير و كل هذا الزخم الإعلامي الذي يبث لتبرير الموقف اللا أخلاقي في قيام سلطة حكومية ضخمة مدججة بالأسلحة تخاف ان يقال في حقها كلمة ؟!

عجب عجاب حيث لا زلت استمع و ارى تلفاز العين العوراء و هو يبث اعتذار فتاة تبلغ من العمر ٢٠ عاماً

تلك اذا مصيبة ، نظام بات في الحكم سنين طوال ترتج اعمدته بأبيات من الشعر!؟

شهامة ما بعدها شهامة

تعذيب و قهر و إهانة و لا زالت الأجهزة الأمنية تريد إثبات موقف تلك الفتاة و محاولة إظهار الصورة للوجه البريء الذي قال تلك الكلمات على انه كان مندفع و قد ندم على ما فعل و ابدى اعتذاره للوالي

أف لكم 

او لم تروا انها كانت صلبة حين اعتذرت فقالت الكلمات بإقتضاب فلم تزد شيئا على ما لُقنت 

تلك هي آيات صمود،شموخ، اعتزاز

وقفة لكل شرفاء الوطن من اجل العزيمة اللا متناهية عندك يا بنت بلدي

و أقولها لكم بكل فخر آيات حتى و ان اعتذرت فهي على حق فما قالته كان نتاج حتمي من جراء استبداد الطغاة

و عرفت ان الكلمة تصبح سيفاً

حينما يكون الطاغي في اوج قوته

ترميه في سحيق مظلم و يسقط التاج على مذبح الشعر

آيات مظلومة لاقت من الآلام اطواراً و من التعذيب الجسدي و النفسي ما لم تلاقي فتاة في عمرها فهي طالبة في جامعة البحرين اي عدل ذلك الذي يزج بطالب في السجن من اجل كلمة اي نظام ذاك الذي يزن قشة و يتهالك بمجرد القاء شعر !؟

أدعوكم إخوتي الى وقفة تجعل آيات تستمد منها الصبر على ما أصابها 

أدعوكم الى يوم تقفون كلكم فيه لتعلنوا فيه استنكاركم لهذه الرزية و مظلومية آيات لا تقفوا مكتوفي الأيدي 

آيات هي اختنا و بنتنا و هي اكيد ام لحر لم يولد بعد

تلك العذراء أنشودة اسميها لسان الثورة

[If you would like to help in translation, email info@justiceforbahrain.com and you'll be credited] 

Postponed... Again.

Ayat's appeal has been postponed once more, to the 3rd of July, when a decision will be made to either release her, reduce her sentence or else she will have to serve her full sentence. 


Again, we remind you of the importance of your prayers; please remember her in yours prayers and supplications. Her family receive regular updates about the avid interest of the international community in their daughters case, so please continue to offer them moral support with your continual effort to spread the word and spread awareness. 


Also, we remind you that Ayat has been nominated for the Freedom to Create 'Imprisoned Artists Prize.' Please take your time out to contact Kate Timperley, kt@freedomtocreate.com, and tell her why you think Ayat deserves the prize. This will have great media impact and will draw attention to the human rights violations in Bahrain. Most importantly, it will be a sign of our gratitude to Ayat for motivating the pro-democracy protesters to keep up the struggle against the atrocities and injustice in Bahrain.

For further information check the previous post regarding Freedom to Create here, and the Freedom To Create website here.

Appeal postponed to 26th June

Ayat Al-Gormezi's appeal has been to the 26th of June. We urge you to pray for her and contact human rights organisations requesting for their immediate intervention and to place increased pressure on the Bahraini government. 

-------------------------------

Sample letter you may use:

To whom it may concern,

RE: Ayat Al-Gormezi’s appeal on 26^th June

I write this to you with the time being of critical essence as many people in Bahrain are being trialled and sentenced for committing absolutely no crime at all. As a renowned human rights organisation I am sure you receive requests for your immediate intervention and action, however Ayat Al-Gormezi’s case is one that requires special attention. She is in dire need of your assistance. 

On the 12^th of March, Ayat Al-Gormezi, a poet and student at the faculty of teachers in Bahrain, recited a poem slamming the Al Khalifa regime for their brutality, injustice and lack of democracy. Some of the key issues she highlighted in her poem was the pain suffered by the oppressed pro-democracy Bahrainis as a result of the suppressive Al-Khalifa regime.

An excerpt of her poem (translated from Arabic):

“We do not wish to live in a palace nor do we yearn for leadership,We are a nation that slays humiliation and assassinates misery,We are a nation that demolishes injustice peacefully from its foundations,We are a nation that doesn’t want this nation to remain at a constant setback”

As a result, Ayat Al-Gormezi has been subjected to much torture, harassment, defamation, intimidation and threats of rape and murder. On March 30^th Ayat gave herself up to the police after they threatened to kill her brothers. She has been detained since. The Military court in Bahrain sentenced her to one year in prison for reading out a poem on the 12th of June 2011. On the 20^th of June she was moved to a prison for major offences to stay alongside murderers, rapists, prostitutes and drug addicts –for what crime?!

Her appeal has been scheduled for the 26^th of June and we request your immediate intervention to ensure that she is released.  

We urge you to help Ayat and the many other Bahrainis in similar positions and also the pro-democracy individuals who fear the same fate.

[For further information, please visit: ayat-algormezi.blogspot.com]

Yours faithfully,

-------------------------------

Enter Ayat for 'Freedom to Create' prize

Freedom to Create supports programmes and projects around the world that unleash 

people’s creativity.

Freedom to Create focuses on regions of the world where there is the greatest need to change mindsets and build capacity to fight the intolerance and conflict that prevents creativity from flourishing. But in many societies, political repression and intolerance inhibits creative expression, especially for women like Ayat. Artists, like Ayat Al-Gormezi, play an important role in breaking these barriers and championing political freedom. 

The Freedom to Create Prize celebrates the courage and creativity of artists who use their talents to build social foundations and inspire the human spirit. Artists and poets like Ayat take risks to play an important role as positive change agents.

The imprisoned artist’s prize is presented to artists who are imprisoned because of their courage and creativity in pursuing their art, and the role of their work in highlighting injustice. There will be less emphasis placed on the artists work and more on the personal courage demonstrated by them, the message conveyed through their work and its impact. The prize of US$25,000 is awarded to one winner, to be directed towards securing the artist's release, advocating on behalf of them and their cause and offering support to their family.

Surely no one is more deserving of this prize then Ayat Al-Gormezi who faces torture, imprisonment and detention as a result using her talent in poetry to stand up and speak out against the suppressive Al-Khalifa regime.

Enter AYAT AL-GORMEZI for the prize -

http://www.freedomtocreate.com/prize-apply-details.asp

This will take some 10 – 15 minutes, we urge you to do this for the sake of Ayat, for the sake of freedom and for the sake of justice for Bahrain.

Update on Ayat

Posted on the Justice for Bahrain facebook group by Mohammed Sadiq today, 21/06/11


Ayat's family went to visit her in prison this morning having been told that they could come, but when they arrived at the gates they were told that they can not see her because they didn't register for the visit and the reason they called them was to register for the next visit. However, after her family protested, they manged to see her for 5 minutes only and were constantly accompanied by a prison guard. Her brother that the prison guard was listing to every word and kept interrupting in the conversation, so they could not ask her about her treatment in the prison she had recently moved to, especially that this prison is for criminals who serving sentences for murder, drugs, prostitution etc. Her brother also noted that his sister had lost a lot of weight.

Her brother stated, regarding the video featured yesterday on Bahrain TV showing Ayat apologizing for reading her poem, that it was recorded during her torture period. The video is actually 20 minutes  long and the officials only showed 1 minute. 

Ayat's appeal is tomorrow. We urge you to pray for her and contact human right organisations to put pressure on the Bahraini government to release her as she should not even be in prison since she has committed NO crime.

Ayat was told her about the global support and solidarity for her case and she sends her salutes and thanks every one who helped in her campaign.

In times like these, poetry is a road to a Bahraini jail

Posted by: Geoffrey Mock in Amnesty’s blog http://blog.amnestyusa.org/, June 16, 2011

In this season of uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa, governments consider even poetry subversive.  Now a young Bahraini student is looking at a year in jail for reading a poem criticizing the Bahraini king.

Ayat al-Qarmezi, 20, a poet and student was convicted by a military court after an unfair trial. She was charged with taking part in illegal protests, disrupting public security and publicly inciting hatred toward the regime. She was arrested in March for reading out a poem at a pro-reform rally in the capital Manama.

The poem’s lyrics include the lines:

“We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery/ Don’t you hear their cries, don’t you hear their screams?”

She was forced to turn herself in to the authorities on March 30 after masked police raided her parents’ house repeatedly and reportedly threatened to kill her brothers unless she did so.

One colleague of the young poet has also told Amnesty International that she has been beaten and tortured.  In addition, the use of military courts to try civilians fails to meet international standards for fair trials.  Download our Urgent Action with information on how you can help free Ayat al-Qarmezi.

According to Amnesty’s director for the Middle East and North Africa Malcolm Smart:

“By locking up a female poet merely for expressing her views in public, Bahrain’s authorities are demonstrating how free speech and assembly are brutally denied to ordinary Bahrainis.”

Amnesty International believes the charges against Ayat al-Qarmezi should be dropped and she should be released immediately, and all allegations of torture should be investigated in an independent and public manner.  It also goes without saying that the use of military courts to try civilians needs to end now.

But the case is just one among many disturbing instances of human rights abuses as protests in are met by violence by security forces and legal action by the Bahrain government, one of the U.S.’ closest strategic allies in the region.  A trial of dozens of doctors and nurses, charged because they treated protesters injured by security forces, is scheduled to resume in a few weeks.  A large trial of opposition leaders is also ongoing.

In his recent speech on the Middle East, U.S. President Barack Obama criticized the abuses he saw in Bahrain.  But beyond these words, our government has failed to take effective action to pressure Bahrain to rein in their security and judicial forces.

The US government’s silence only means we have to be louder.  Ayat al-Qarmezi’s case has attracted the attention of writers everywhere including PEN International.

Amnesty International launched a Twitter action on Bahrain yesterday (June 15).  Click here to take part.

Take Action: call for Ayat's release

20-year-old activist Ayat Al-Qarmezi has been jailed for a year for reading poetry critical of the King. Call for her release.

In February, while attending a pro-reform rally in Manama, Ayat al-Qarmezi read out a poem she had written. Its lyrics include: ‘We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery / Don’t you hear their cries, don’t you hear their screams?’ On 12 June, Ayat al-Qarmezi was sentenced by a military court to one year in prison for taking part in illegal protests, disrupting public security and inciting hatred towards the regime. We consider Ayat al-Qarmezi to be a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned for peacefully expressing her views in public.

http://www.protectthehuman.com/actions/free-bahraini-poet-ayat-al-gormezi/main?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=MENA&utm_content=bahrainpoet-tw