Rula Al Saffar - Prison is a journey, a venture, a bet on victory



Bahrain Mirror: Ibtisam Saleh



“Now I am not Rula Al Saffar, I am Suha Bechara. I will get out of here just as she did.” With these words Rula cradled herself as she faced her unknown fate in the middle of a dark, scary cell, at a time that could not be any worse for Bahrain, and no one knows the full extent of the oppression that awaits. There is no place for anything but revenge on the audacity of roses and free speech. Rula kept repeating these words, believing that like “Bechara” she will survive and walk out victorious.

In the previous episode, Rula Al Saffar was sharing her sell with prostitutes and drug addicts, sharing the lower deck of the bed with a drug addict that took pity on Rula’s shivering body that rocked the bed, and made her give up her bed sheet and covered her. Rula will never forget that for her, and continues talking about her experience:

I was surprised by the sheer number of prostitution and drug use female detainees and their nationalities: Russian, Chinese, Filipino, Ethiopian, Malaysian, Sudanese, Egyptian, Qatari, Omani, Kuwaiti, and Bahraini.

I complained to the Ministry of Interior’s Ombudsman Lieutenant Colonel Ibrahim Habib Ghaith: Do you think its proper to lock us up with prostitutes and drug addicts? A policewoman named Shamma replied “you’re just one of them!” So I snapped back “I am not! I am a daughter of this country and I am neither a prostitute nor a drug user, living with them I might catch a contagious disease as we share the same Bathroom.” I repeated the request to Lieutenant Colonel Ghaith: We want a separate cell for us Bahrainis away from them. He said “no problem, put the National Security convicts together in a cell.”

The pressure from Katherine Ashton, European Commission’s vice president and higher representative of EU foreign policy and security, had a big role in that. How did you know that? She said “from the newspapers that were smuggled to us by the other inmates, since newspapers go to the policewomen’s office and then they are taken to the other inmates but are not allowed to go to the National Security detainees.” She goes on to clarify “By the way if I mention an improvement here or there or better treatment or any of that sort, that’s because one of the human rights organizations has entered Bahrain, or there is a prison visit. That was more evident in June.”

Sheikha Noora Al Khalifa’s Office

They got me into her office while I was blindfolded and my hands were handcuffed behind my back. Sheikha Noora Al Khalifa ordered someone “take off her blindfold. Get her water.” She sat up straight, looked at me and said “you hate the regime. You said down with Hamad; you have weapons and you’re a doctor. Welcome to my office. Just so you know, you were being watched since 2005 (referring to the time when we were demanding higher pay for nursing staff) and I have been waiting for you to come to my office since then (that was when I realized they kept me in mind since then.) A policeman kept on writing down the allegations against me and I kept on denying them in a tone of defiance. She said “talking is of no use with her.” It was a direct order; three men came to me, one of them I could distinguish if I saw him again, started slapping me in different parts of my body, took me back to the cell, and electrocuted me.

Sheikha Noora would come to us at 3:30 in the morning, attacking us at times, and trying to pit us against each other at other times; me and the other inmates by saying “This person said this and that about you” but would go on “but I don’t care if that’s what they said.” In essence making up accusations and attributing to others, while still torturing us.

The Silent Woman

One night a woman came to inspect the inmates. She did not speak a word. We could not see her as we were blindfolded. I knew she was a woman as soon as she stepped in, the sound of her heels, the swoosh of her clothes, the clinging of her bracelets, her feminine perfume that filled the room. She was spoken to with respect, and every word was preceded with “Sir”. Shaikha Noora said “this is Rula Al Saffar, this is Nahid Al Shirawi, and this is Nada Dhaif.” The session ended. She walked out silently as she walked in. Who is that woman? I do not know. But my intuition tells me she was a high ranking Sheikha to them.

Noora Al Khalifa.. Again

We don’t know where the hit or slap would come from. I remember I passed out after the first slap. When I was conscious again, I felt two hands inserting an electrocution device in my ears. Like everything else, they deceived and attacked us when we least expected it. A strong ringing sound would enter the ear that would transcend to electric vibrations into my head like the sound of a jet that was horribly painful. I would lose conscious for a short while, wake up lost again, not remembering where I was, why I was there, and what I said. That is known as concussion, where the head would shake, the skull would shake also, which would affect the brain substance which would negatively impact the brain’s memory and cognitive functions. I would barely wake up from the electrocution to hear insults. After that Sheikha Noora would take me herself to her office upstairs, push me up the stairs, and would say “I hope to see you suffer just as I suffered from you.” Then I would hear in her presence a man with foul language that would threaten me with rape, using swearing language I had not even heard of.

Big massive hands would fall upon my body, and to add insult to injury I would get hit with shoes. That was not enough, I was spat upon, sexual harassment (I am too ashamed to describe it) and then threatened by rape. My intuition would tell me that a large scary man, his smell of alcohol and tobacco, evidently drunk, slurry mouthed, and foul mouthed to the fullest extent. They would bring them one by one. Even though, I felt it was just a threat and it did not scare me.

At Bin Huail’s Office

At one time at the Public Prosecution, at Officer Mubarak Bin Huail’s office, I was surprised that he started hitting me. I said “didn’t you promise me that you would not hit me?” He replied angrily “I will hit you and I will kill you if you do not comply with us.” At another session I heard two men, unaware of my listening ability, whisper “let me have her just one night” the other said “forget her, she is an old woman. We have young girls coming in.” That is when I knew they were bringing in school and university girls. Note that Officer Bin Huail was the torturer, interrogator, and witness to all the breaches and atrocities there.

The Gift

One day I was overcome with Joy, my heavy heart alleviated although I was in the torture chamber, where they led me there so I would hear the doctors’ confessions. The doctors were Dr Mahmood Asghar and Dr Ali Al Ekri. The subject of the interrogation was me. They aimed to extract a confession from someone that would say “she was a first caliber leader, she would order and others would follow, she would command and others would execute, she had special charisma, she would come and she would conquer.”

I was overcome with joy, not because of the flattery, but because I knew at that moment that they were alive, they did not die. They were arrested before me in 17 March, and we were so cut off and out of touch in jail that we were not aware of what happened around us and what could happen to our colleagues. Death was the only guest in that den. I was very afraid for their safety, especially that during the first week in the criminal investigations unit I could hear Ibrahim Al Damistani, Ali Al Ekri, and Abdulkhaliq Al Oraibi screaming and groaning under their whips. I also knew when I was out that they had heard me scream too. What kind of heart could accept this cruelty and injustice? Instead of being honored? How can I forget Dr Al Ekri’s sorrow as he was going to wash up before prayer repeating “Dear God, you know best… only you know.”

Suha Bechara’s Lesson

I got used to the torture although it caused a limp in my right foot at the time, but I developed a way to cope with the situation known as (copying mechanism). I considered myself going on a dangerous adventure and that I had to go through it driven by the challenge and redemption, exactly like the adventures we watch in movies and how the heroes win in the end. When the torture session ends, I would revisit Suha Bechara’s lesson. I would train my memory against loss. I would repeat to myself: I am Rula Al Saffar, my accusations are this and that, I said this and that in the interrogation, I came here five days ago. I would focus, remember everything that happened, everything that was said, and what I said. I would repeat it like a study material that I had to memorize by heart to make sure that I was of sound mind and sanity, striving to protect it, as that was where my freedom was and I would not allow them to tarnish it which was what I needed to defend myself.

Eye Signals

When they took me to the temporary prison in Isa Town I got to know some of the other inmates, they were locked up in rooms with small windows. When I would go to the bathroom I would pass by the rooms with their little windows and look across them. My eyes met Jalila Al Salman’s. She looked at me with empathy and sympathy. I winked at her, and her eyes sent a message of defiance. Through the other window I could see a pretty young lady, her eyes asking “who are you?” That was Ayat Al Qurmuzi. When I came across Nada Dhaif’s eyes, her eyes were asking “you’re here also? Even you?”

All of them were Shia

Here I was moved with Dr Zahra Al Sammak to Fadhila Al Mubarak’s cell. Poor Fadhila. Sleeping on the floor with another inmate called Um Ali. We were 25 women, including medics and teachers. Three women, employees of the Formula One race track, were moved out. The cells were vacated except Jalila Al Salman, Ayat Al Qurmuzi, Najah Al Haddad, Rajaa Kadhem, Fatima Baqali. I spent most of my prison time with them, and they have a special place in my heart. All of them exceptional talents, teachers, academics, and intellectuals; but I was surprised to note that they were all Shia. Everyone I met was Shia. I did not, and will not accept sectarianism, and I still remember that people that visited the medic’s tent at the roundabout were both Sunni and Shia, so I expected to see a mix of both. But I only saw one Sunni detainee, Nahid Al Shiraw.

One Heart..

During my detention I met 200 to 250 female Bahraini detainees. Some of them school girls, middle school and high school, house wives, teachers, and doctors. It was as if god wanted to grace me by meeting them and getting to know the best of these women while I was there. Prison is not what it is with these people. We were on a prolonged trip, living with each other 24 hours. I do not remember any of them doing or saying anything to annoy me. We were like a closely knit family. I will never forget Um Ali’s favor towards me. They pulled her away from her newly born child that she hasn’t finished breastfeeding. I asked her to call my husband, since it has been more than three weeks without knowing anything about him, when her phone call time was just 10 minutes. I told her to tell him “Lulu is fine” and hang up and he will get the message. She did that for me.

Two angels

Before I met Jalila Al Salman and Ayat Al Qurmuzi, Widad Al Banna, a colleague from the health sciences faculty, was kept with me for three days. She was like an angel. She was so kind and good natured that she came so I would not sleep alone. She passed by like spring’s breeze. After Widad, God gifted me with another angel: my Aunt. Yes my Aunt (she laughs). They did not know that she was my Aunt (Sahar Al Saffar) and she was a teacher at Toledo Primary school. She was one of the teachers that were unjustly accused. She was like a gift from god to quench my loneliness and bring me closer to my family. She left after three days.

Videotaped Confessions

On May 16th, I saw a full camera team trying to cover their faces with headwear or masks. That was how I saw them, led by a famous Bahraini director, who also covered his face but his shape and figure was obvious for a Bahraini like me. They even called him by name. He came with his camera team, along with him a famous Bahraini actor, the former director of a television channel, a known writer and a TV character that is known to spread hate and sectarianism, and someone from a government sponsored human rights group. They videotaped me in a rush as was planned. I had to recite what they told me beforehand along with an apology to the King. Every person had a confession that was slightly different than the other, until it was my turn. They did what they had to do in a rush since they wanted to catch a big football game, and so they did not take enough care for their masks not to fall, and so I got to see them one by one. But I will not reveal their identities so that it does not affect my colleagues that are still being tried in the court of cassation. But their day will come, and I will reveal who they were.

• Link to part 1
• Link to part 2
• Link to part 4
• Link to the Arabic copy