document · Interview
Maryam al-Khawaja (Bahraini human-rights defender; Gulf Center for Human Rights / Bahrain Center for Human Rights) — interview with Diplomatic Courier, March 2012 (~first anniversary of the uprising): a human-rights-universalist stance — "our view is not what kind of government there should be, but... making sure we have a government that respects human rights" — and the 2011 uprising as breaking "the barrier of fear."
English 
Bahrain 2012-03-06 Tier 2 — primary or translation
Politician: Maryam al-Khawaja
Original source: https://www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/an-uprising-in-bahrain-interview-with-human-rights-activist-maryam-al-khawaja
Content
To me as a human rights activist, our view is not what kind of government there should be, but rather it’s making sure we have a government that respects human rights. I think that is the most important thing to us.
I remember it was pretty amazing seeing thousands and thousands and thousands of people out in the streets and to see the barrier of fear broken. English translation
[Source is English (Diplomatic Courier interview); confirmed verbatim against the fetched page.] Declared positions of Maryam al-Khawaja — a leading Bahraini human-rights defender (director of foreign relations / later acting head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, and of the Gulf Center for Human Rights), daughter of the imprisoned Bahraini activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has campaigned from exile against the Al Khalifa monarchy's repression. From an interview (~6 March 2012, near the first anniversary of Bahrain's 14 February 2011 uprising). She articulates a HUMAN-RIGHTS-UNIVERSALIST position — explicitly not prescribing a regime type ("our view is not what kind of government there should be") but demanding "a government that respects human rights" — and frames the 2011 uprising's core achievement as Bahrainis breaking "the barrier of fear" to take to the streets and demand change. In other interviews she has indicted "the culture of impunity enforced by the regime and the king" and called the post-uprising Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) a tool the regime "used... to buy itself time" rather than implement real reforms. This is the Gulf civil-society / human-rights-and-accountability pole — pressing the Bahraini monarchy (and its GCC / Western backers) over arbitrary detention, torture and political prisoners — distinct from the political opposition (al-Wefaq's Ali Salman) and from the establishment, and a rare woman's voice in the dataset. [Axes: civil-liberties / human-rights (the paramount good; accountability), democracy (a rights-respecting government over any specific regime form), regime-stance (against the Al Khalifa monarchy's repression / impunity).] How to cite this document
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In-text
(al-Khawaja, 2012) al-Khawaja, M.. (2012). Maryam al-Khawaja (Bahraini human-rights defender; Gulf Center for Human Rights / Bahrain Center for Human Rights) — interview with Diplomatic Courier, March 2012 (~first anniversary of the uprising): a human-rights-universalist stance — "our view is not what kind of government there should be, but... making sure we have a government that respects human rights" — and the 2011 uprising as breaking "the barrier of fear.". diplomaticourier.com. Retrieved July 28, 2026, from https://www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/an-uprising-in-bahrain-interview-with-human-rights-activist-maryam-al-khawaja
al-Khawaja, Maryam. 2012. "Maryam al-Khawaja (Bahraini human-rights defender; Gulf Center for Human Rights / Bahrain Center for Human Rights) — interview with Diplomatic Courier, March 2012 (~first anniversary of the uprising): a human-rights-universalist stance — "our view is not what kind of government there should be, but... making sure we have a government that respects human rights" — and the 2011 uprising as breaking "the barrier of fear."." diplomaticourier.com. Accessed July 28, 2026. https://www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/an-uprising-in-bahrain-interview-with-human-rights-activist-maryam-al-khawaja.
@misc{doc-document-fc7b537c-8644-4e22-8dd6-f16633768663,
author = {al-Khawaja, Maryam},
title = {Maryam al-Khawaja (Bahraini human-rights defender; Gulf Center for Human Rights / Bahrain Center for Human Rights) — interview with Diplomatic Courier, March 2012 (~first anniversary of the uprising): a human-rights-universalist stance — "our view is not what kind of government there should be, but... making sure we have a government that respects human rights" — and the 2011 uprising as breaking "the barrier of fear."},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-03-06},
howpublished = {Online; hosted at diplomaticourier.com},
url = {https://www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/an-uprising-in-bahrain-interview-with-human-rights-activist-maryam-al-khawaja},
urldate = {2026-07-28},
note = {Retrieved via Tayyar at https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/documents/fc7b537c-8644-4e22-8dd6-f16633768663},
} Retrieved via Tayyar: https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/documents/fc7b537c-8644-4e22-8dd6-f16633768663 on July 28, 2026. Tayyar is a research host for primary sources, not the author of this document.