The reason that this might not have got any press is because those arrested are members of a hardline Islamist party, whose petition for "democratic reforms" includes the demand that women should lose all political rights.

I'm fully aware these guys are Shi'ites, and mentioned that. I would welcome any documentation of your claim their suggested reforms include stripping Bahraini women of political rights.

There are doubtless other details that need further airing, such as why does "calling for change to the political system" possibly get you life in jail? And what's the legal basis for equally serious charges of "provoking hatred" and "trying to destabilize public secuity?" This rhetoric, used by authorities in my item's second link to describe the alleged crimes, seems a red flag.

What is your take on Mahmood's blog entry about all this, which I link to? He hardly seems a dupe for Islamists. As in Iraq and Iran, among other places, Shi'ites will have to be part of any democratic reforms which occur...there is little to be gained from writing them all off as hopeless exremists; that's just not true.

Mahmood's Den is a great weblog, and I agree with him entirely that the government's "ballsed up" in the way its handled this. Its been all over the place: slow, incoherent, confused and now heavy handed. But you've got to recognise where Al-Wefaq Islamic Action is coming from and understand what they're trying to achieve in Bahrain - and how they're attempting to do it.

Al-Wefaq is a hardline Islamic party - its unclear whether it wants to establish an Islamic state on the lines of Iran, or just give its clerics the veto of the country's political, social and economic development. Probably the latter. It talks issues of democracy and human rights to a western audience, but its clerics speak the language of "public morality" to Bahrainis, raging against the modern world.

You refer to the Voice of Bahrain which is produced by the Bahrain Freedom Movement (Al-Wefaq's sister organisation) - this is what it calls itself in English, but in Arabic its the Bahrain Islamic Freedom Movement. The latter name obviously has a very conatations and it neatly captures the duality of the fundamentalists' approach, depending on whether they're speaking to a westerner or their congregation.

The place of women in society is at the heart of this whole confrontation in Bahrain. The Islamist ranting and ravings about "public morality" and the dangers of the West is essentially about where women fit into society and keeping women in their place.

Their petition is an attack on women's political equality. Women were only granted the right to vote in the 2002 amendments, before that they never voted in an election before. In this sense Bahrain was like Kuwait.

The petition calls for all the 2002 amendments to be overturned, it makes no exception for women's political equality. It could easily have done so if Al-Wefaq had wanted it to, but it didn't.

These Al-Wefaq activists are nothing more than thugs - the party's very own Brownshirts. Today they might be collecting signatures for a petition, back in March we had two weekends of their rioting - rampaging through the centre of Manama beating up Indians, as part of a campaign against alcohol sales and prostitution, and then they attacked a French restaurant firebombing the car park. Al-Wefaq's leader turned up at the second riot to address his thugs on the dangers of "public immorality".

And now these thugs are applying the same tactics to their petition - intimidating those who don't sign. With Islamic extremists violence is never far behind.

you obviously have no clue about the petition or the 1973 constitution. The 1973 constitution, which the petition refers to, mentions nothing about women not have the right to vote, or that it is only men who could vote. Furthermore, the petition no where says that they want to reject the right for women to vote. Please get your facts right before starting to give such wide-sweeping and factless statements.

you obviously have no clue about the petition or the 1973 constitution. The 1973 constitution, which the petition refers to, mentions nothing about women not having the right to vote, or that it is only men who could vote. Furthermore, the petition no where says that they want to reject the right for women to vote. Please get your facts right before starting to give such wide-sweeping and factless statements.

This is about HUMAN rights not women's rights. How can we even start talking about the latter when the former is on the table here?

Gender equality is referred to in the 1973 constitution in Article 18, so there is no need to debate the issue since it is implicit in the demand for the restoration of the 1973 constitution. Please refer to Jaleela Alsayed, a Bahrain opposition activist of the highest esteem in Bahrain and voted Woman of the Year in a recent poll- the organiser of the Conference on the Constitutional Crisis in February. Bahrain is one of the most liberal countries in the Gulf, where woman's rights are respected both legally and culturally and religiously. Women having been active in most societies in Bahrain, in fact two were elected on the boards of one Islamic society today. As for Alwefaq, two nominated themselves in the last elections, although they didnt make it on the board, they are heading several committees.

News just come in that the Prisoners have gone on hunger strike and one has been taken to hospital. This shows the extent of passion and committment to the peaceful approaches taken by the opposition activists to express their discontent and commitment to the constitutional movement that has enveloped Bahrain since the dissolution of Parliament by the late Amir in 1975.

This democratic movement has held fast against all efforts to discredit it over the years, since it stands on one firm piller- the reinstation of the 'contractual' 1973 constitution. It has proved to be tolerant through an alliance of clerics, librals, leftists, shiites, sunnis etc. It has managed to raise human rights abuses to international organisations and there is a vast litrature in the international media on Bahrain, all thanks to the opposition campaigning hard to get their voices heard under an increasingly repressive regime.

Thank you to everyone out there for your support of Bahraini freedom over the years.