In a post on the formerly Twitter "X" platform on Sunday, July 6, 2024, Sahwan said, "I went to the station and met with its chief, who informed me that reciters are banned from traveling abroad."

The U.S. State Department published its 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom: Bahrain. What is clear after reading this report is the ruling family in Bahrain uses religious discrimination as a tool in the preservation of its authoritarianism.

Interior Minister Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa stated that "the royal sponsorship provided all the reasons for the success of the Ashura season," but the minister did not mention what was provided by the king for the successful commemoration of Ashura.

A report issued by the American (ACLED) organization said that the Bahraini regime considers the Shiite religious Ashura season a political threat and suppresses mourning rituals.

On the sixth day of Muharram (1443 Hijri/August 15, 2021), government agencies continued targeting the events and manifestations of Ashura in various ways and means, this time using the Coronavirus and the medical team as a pretext to impose strict restrictions on the religious practices of the Shiite majority in the country.

The fifth day of the holy month of Muharram 1443 AH (Saturday, August 14, 2021) recorded a continuation of the violations committed by the forces of the Interior Ministry against the Shiite majority, holding events in most areas across Bahrain on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (PBUH).

On the fourth day of Muharram 2021, the Bahraini Interior Ministry continued its crackdown on Ashura commemoration rituals in Bahraini villages and cities as part of an ongoing sectarian approach.

Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Ahmed Qassim issued a statement on the commemoration of Ashura and precautionary measures, in which he recommended that commemoration activities be carried out according to the same preventive measures imposed on other gatherings where caution should be exercised, i.e. gatherings tolerated by the state.

The security authorities continued their ongoing campaign since 2011 against Ashura rituals during Muharram season in 2020 by systematic restrictions imposed on religious rites of Shiite citizens.

A Bahraini court sentenced on Wednesday (November 18, 2020) Shiite cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ansari to 6 months over a religious sermon he delivered in Ashura.

Authorities in Bahrain have been, for over a month, desperate to complete a round of clinical experiments on a Chinese coronavirus vaccine. The reluctance of people to participate over fear has thwarted government efforts to reach 6,000 participants, requested by the UAE government.

The Cassation Court upheld on Monday (August 24, 2020) upheld a one-year jail term against Shiite cleric Sheikh Abdulmohsen Mulla Atiya Al-Jamri over a religious lecture he delivered on the onset of 2020.

Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, the spiritual leader of Shia majority in Bahrain, condemned the decision to close Shiite mosques in Hamad town, considering it a seditious step that aims at fighting the thoughts of Ahl Al-Bayt.

SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights (SALAM DHR) and Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR) issued a joint report documenting violations during the Ashura season in Bahrain under the title "No Tolerance for Religious Rituals in Ashura".

Activists on social media outlets said that the Bahraini authorities decided to arrest 6 citizens over charge of participating in the central prayers held on the eve of the 10th of Muharram in downtown Manama.

The spiritual leader of the Shiite majority, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, attacked the Government of Bahrain after summoning and interrogating dozens of Hussaini preachers and eulogy reciters after discussing "Yazid's wicked biography" describing these actions as an "advocacy of Yazid and acceptance of the slaughter of Hussain".

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayed Hassan Nasrallah stressed that he stands with the Bahraini people in the face of tyranny.

Ashura in Bahrain is no longer a peaceful spiritual season during which the Shiite majority freely practice their religious rituals as they used to hundreds of years ago. They now practice these rituals under the authority of threats and intimidation after the Bahraini authorities took Ashura season as an opportunity to further harass, provoke and target the Shiite community in Bahrain.

The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR) said that it has recorded in the first eight days (September 1-8) of the Ashura season 54 violations of freedom of religion and belief and the Shia Muslims' commemoration of Ashura in Bahrain.

Ashura is not just a black cloth or merely a story, memory or tear. Under all this blackness, there is an idea, and ideas cannot be killed by bullets, nor extracted in interrogation, torture and detention chambers.