“Every minute of the day, I think about what I need to be doing next to sustain the battle to gain freedom, not just for my husband but for myself and for others. None of us are free. We have been living off the whim of an autocrat who decided our fate with a stroke of the pen.”

– Dr. Ala’a Shehabi

The uprisings in Bahrain were demonstrations that challenged the internal power of the nation as well as its external relations. People gathered in masses at the Pearl Roundabout, with many series of anti-government protests led mainly by the Shia and some Sunni Bahraini opposition. The Pearl Roundabout was initially a symbol of modernization as well as the formation of the GCC, Gulf Cooperation Council; however became more commonly associated with the 2011 democracy protests and was demolished soon after as an attempt to quell the movement as well as its significance. Similar to global Occupy movements, thousands of people occupied this space, showcasing collective resistance and disrupting daily life. The movement threatened the GCC’s commitment to preserving Bahrain’s rule by ordering Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to deploy troops over the border. In the end, this uprising not only disrupted the authoritarian rule of Bahrain but also the idea that the Arab Spring would not impact nations with substantial oil wealth in the Gulf.