Bahrain: The Prime Minister is granted an international award for housing while a woman sleeps on roadside because she has no house
Manama, 5 June 2007
Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) is highly concerned by the sufferings of Safia Ahmed Ali, 36 from Al-Deer “Al-Muharraq” village. Safia is homeless and the Ministry of Housing refuses to give her an adequate house. It is noteworthy that Safia launched a sit-in near the Ministry of Housing since the Bahraini Prime Minister was grant Housing and Human Development Award.
“I launched a sit-in near the Ministry of Housing since five days ago on Saturday 30 June 2007. My daughter Mariam, 10 years-old, joined me for two days but she could not continue because of the very hot weather. Therefore, I took her to one of my relatives and then I came back to continue my strike. I decided not to move from here and I had to sleep on roadside,” Safia told BYSHR.
Bahrain: The Prime Minister is granted an international award for housing while a woman sleeps on roadside because she has no house
Manama, 5 June 2007
Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) is highly concerned by the sufferings of Safia Ahmed Ali, 36 from Al-Deer “Al-Muharraq” village. Safia is homeless and the Ministry of Housing refuses to give her an adequate house. It is noteworthy that Safia launched a sit-in near the Ministry of Housing since the Bahraini Prime Minister was grant Housing and Human Development Award.
“I launched a sit-in near the Ministry of Housing since five days ago on Saturday 30 June 2007. My daughter Mariam, 10 years-old, joined me for two days but she could not continue because of the very hot weather. Therefore, I took her to one of my relatives and then I came back to continue my strike. I decided not to move from here and I had to sleep on roadside,” Safia told BYSHR.
BYSHR representatives visited the woman’s sit-in venue near the Ministry of Housing and they discovered that she is under continues strike and she got few things to sleep on which will cause her health problems.
Safia also said: “I got divorced in 2002. At the beginning, I used to live with my relatives and I applied for the Ministry of Housing to have a house in 2003. Then, I moved to live temporarily in a small apartment but I could not afford paying the rent fees because I quit work for some health reasons. Therefore, the owner expelled me out and I went back to my relatives’ house. Their house is very small and my child and I cannot live with them forever. That is why I decided to sit in before the Ministry of Housing to call for having an adequate residence. At the beginning of the strike, some official responded to me personally. I refused his personal response and I asked him to respond officially and to offer me a house, particularly that I submitted an application to have an apartment not a house. The official did not come back to me again and stated in press that the ministry offered me an apartment and I refused to have it. This is not true.”
BYSHR representatives noticed that there were security men in plain clothes in a security vehicle near sit-in venue. They were observing the woman’s situation cautiously. Shortly after, the vehicle approached BYSHR representatives and the woman and kept on watching them bluntly.
“During strike, security forces in coordination with women police station attempted to remove me but I refused. They, then, pulled me, stuffed me into security vehicle, and drove me to the hostel affiliated to the Ministry of Social Development. The official asked me to stay in the hostel. I refused and I came back to sit-in venue again,” Safia added.
BYSHR discovered that the hostel affiliated to the Ministry of Social Development receives foreign female servants suffering violence and sexual harassment. It is not a suitable place for a Bahraini woman seeking an adequate house.
One of Safia’s relatives told BYSHR: “we are guarding Safia for 24 hours/day. We fear that security men or visitors to sit-in venue may harass her because of the high economic value of the area.”
Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights confirms that housing is right of every citizen. BYSHR call upon international organizations to address the Bahraini government in terms of Safia’s problem, with considering that housing problem is widespread all over Bahrain. The government has to offer adequate housing, particularly that the Prime Minister won recently a UN award for housing and human development.
Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights
