Crackdown in Bahrain Hints of End to Reforms

By THANASSIS CAMBANIS
NYT

MANAMA, Bahrain — The three women in head scarves and black abayas surged into the main atrium of the Seef Mall at 11 p.m. the other night, unfurling a banner outside the Next clothing boutique that read, “It is forbidden to arbitrarily arrest and detain people.”

A picture was taken, and in less than a minute they had dispersed. As they tried to leave, more than a dozen plainclothes and uniformed police officers surrounded one of them, Fakhria al-Singace, pinning her spread-eagled on a cafe table.

“You have no right to arrest me!” she shouted.

“Shut your mouth!” a female officer said as she tried to handcuff Ms. Singace, pulling off her cloaklike abaya in the process. Officers shooed shoppers away and questioned a journalist.

The arrest at one of Bahrain’s busiest late-night spots occurred in the second week of a sweeping crackdown in this island kingdom in the Persian Gulf, a strategic American ally that is home to the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet and that appears to be reconsidering its decade-long flirtation with reform.

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