Editorial: Prison Is a Coronavirus Target and Political Prisoners Are Country's Immunity

2020-04-11 - 3:15 am

Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Coronavirus is changing the whole world. It is said that once this virus ends, the world won't be the same anymore. Those behind bars in Bahrain are victims of the pre-Coronavirus world. There is no political meaning for even keeping them imprisoned,  as this only exhausts the government at a time when it needs to lift its burdens.

Why doesn't the government want to change? Is it hatred and stubbornness? Stubbornness is a characteristic of a foolish person, but Coronavius does not distinguish between a fool and a rational person or between a foolish and non-foolish regime.

Coronavirus seeks living cells; it wants to enter them to infest them and then leave them in ruin. The prison is the most crowded, targeted and dangerous "living cell". The [political] prisoners are a flexible cell-they are our ailment and cure. They are our ailment because them being in prison means that our political and social system is diseased, and they are our cure because reform begins with them. They are the remedy for our society in Bahrain and the joy of heartbroken families.

The Coronavirus attacks the weak body and defeats those with a poor immune system. Our social body now has a weakened immunity and our families are fragile without their [loved ones]. They are the ones who give us strength, immunity and resilience. How can a mother whose imprisoned sons are threatened with death resist disease and infection? How can a family waiting for their beloved's execution either at the hands of the authorities or the Coronavirus fight off this disease?

The prison is one of the Coronavirus frontiers. We have to cleanse it of the blood of prisoners of conscience as it is our responsibility to do so. History will never forgive us if this virus sneaks across this frontier and kills this living cell of our society.

Coronavius does not defeat a body with strong immunity, but it suffocates a divided country, and destroys its people. It finds pleasure in the airways through which we breathe. The people are the airways through which the nation breathes. There are more than 3,000 prisoners of conscience whose pains their families can feel. Release them so their beloved ones and their community can breathe and resist the virus.

Animosity weakens the immune system-it is an epidemic. Stop the animosity and take it away from the decision makers. Open your minds and have a change of heart.

The government should know that history has shown that prisoners of conscience pose no danger to the nation, as they are its immunity. 


Arabic Version