Bahrain has only 1.8 million people, so it doesn’t get written about much in English or Spanish, especially in comparison to the larger nations nearby. There’s probably a rich literature in Arabic, but I don’t know the language.
Hence, I had a hard time finding a book about Bahrain that was not a travel guide. The Battle for the Arab Spring is about the entire region, but it has one chapter on Bahrain. The book was published in 2012 in response to the revolutionary activity in many Arabic nations in 2011. The region’s frustrated middle class rebelled against corruption, nepotism, crony capitalism, and a general lack of opportunities. The precise catalysts and targets varied a bit from nation to nation. A decade later, the consensus is that the Arab Spring ended in failure.
The rebellion in Bahrain coincided with the celebration of 40 years of independence from Great Britain. The public took stock of their situation, and they didn’t like the uneven economic opportunities, shortage of housing, discrimination against Shi’ite Muslims, and government corruption. And, it failed.
In the United States, we’re taught that democracy and freedom are the natural order of things. It’s considered patriotic to overlook the many, many times that we have not lived up to our principles. And, too often our foreign policy is driven by the idea that everyone else wants what we have, but maybe without the Electoral College or the institutionalized racism. That, of course, led to the war in Afghanistan. It also led me to root for everyone fighting for freedom in the Arab Spring, but the fight was a lot harder than it seemed.
It’s always hard. Even white men who owned property had to fight to the death to get the right to vote in the American Revolution. It’s also one of very few successful revolutions against colonial powers, or any powers at all.
