Society protests the poverty ‘trap’
By TARIQ KHONJI
Published: 7th April 2007
A MARCH against poverty went ahead yesterday, albeit on a detoured route after police intervention.
The event, organised by the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, called for economic rights for the villages of the Northern Governorate that lie along the Budaiya Highway.
The march was stopped before it began by more than 10 police vehicles near the Jawad Petrol Station in Karanah village, where it was scheduled to begin.
At first the organisers called off the event, but they regrouped in nearby Barbar village, which was among the places that the activists were planning to pass by.
Society protests the poverty ‘trap’
By TARIQ KHONJI
Published: 7th April 2007
A MARCH against poverty went ahead yesterday, albeit on a detoured route after police intervention.
The event, organised by the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, called for economic rights for the villages of the Northern Governorate that lie along the Budaiya Highway.
The march was stopped before it began by more than 10 police vehicles near the Jawad Petrol Station in Karanah village, where it was scheduled to begin.
At first the organisers called off the event, but they regrouped in nearby Barbar village, which was among the places that the activists were planning to pass by.
They continued into the Abu Subah Coast in Diraz, where they were met again by police but by then the march had ended. The participants carried banners calling for the village residents to be given more opportunities to escape the poverty trap.
“The police told us that we were not allowed to go ahead with the march because as a youth society we fall under the umbrella of the General Organisation of Youth and Sports and not a political society under the Justice Ministry,” said society president Mohammed Al Maskati.
“They said that for this reason we are not allowed to hold marches of this sort.”
Mr Al Maskati said that while the detour meant that fewer people saw the march, they still managed to get their message across.
“We changed our route to avoid the police. We wanted to get the message across but we didn’t want to have any clashes with them. We stuck to less crowded areas, but we managed to cover most of the villages we were planning to pass by, which is the important thing,” he said.
The marchers also had to cancel an event at the end of the march in which important figures from the area were due to give speeches.
Mr Al Maskati said that despite the intervention, the society was planning to go ahead with three other marches scheduled for the following three Fridays of this month. The venues for these events haven’t been decided yet, but they will also cover various villages.
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