Bahrain Opinion: The West's 21st Century Gives Way to a Regime's Dark Ages

One of the dubious perks of being a male, liberal Afghan living in the West is constantly being asked questions for which you have few answers. Of the hundreds of enquiries about my country,the most enduring remains this one: “Why do you think Afghans still refuse to live in the 21st century?” --- the 21st century being a euphemism for the century where apparently human rights are respected.

Well, the answer is far more complicated than something like, “Well, I don’t know, maybe, because it’s too expensive to live in a world full of iPhones, 3-D television sets, Hummers and such.” But the truth can be a mangled landscape of bitterness –-- something my Western compatriots may not choose to ponder.

Take Bahrain, for example.

In the past few months, the blood of innocent Bahrainis has been used to wash away the sins of the ruling class. It wasn’t simply enough to wash the streets with that blood. Nor was it enough to completely demolish Pearl Roundabout, where Bahrainis had spent days and nights with their families, dreaming about a country where everyone had equal rights.

The ruling class had to paint the walls of schools, hospitals, and homes with that blood to feel satisfied. And it ain’t over yet. More blood is being spilt behind closed doors in dungeon-esque prisons where Al Jazeera’s cameras and Twitterers have no access to let you and I know about the gravity of the situation.

The same men first called on their big brother Saudi Arabia to send a foreign invasion force to pacify Bahrainis. But that still didn’t quell the bloodlust. Recently, the monarchy sent their hired thugs from school to school, first beating and then threatening girls as young as 12 with rape to find the whereabouts of anyone who had dared to dream of a better future.

Shocking, eh?

Apparently not shocking enough for the Western governments and the outlets that promote their first-class nations. Why do Western policymakers not mention a quasi-apartheid regime such as Bahrain these days? Why is it that the Western media is slowly phasing out news about innocent children being threatened, simply because their adult relatives wanted to live in that 21st century about which I am always asked?

While we condemn the hell out of Syria and bomb Libya for doing just about the same things as Bahrain’s ruling class have done, we cut the latter slack because we –-- the people who declare we live the 21st century –-- still live in the dark ages. Alliances mean much more to us than human rights. Monetary gain takes priority over the lives of the innocent.

It’s called hypocrisy in Afghan languages, just as in Western languages –-- albeit with a different pronunciation. And this hypocrisy, like a malignant tumor, continues to hold Westerners in the same backward place where they say Afghans reside.