The Week That Was in Bahrain  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahrain's bloggers celebrated Eid this week, with many posting greetings on their sites or simply musing about the tradition.
While Mahmood Al Yousif thinks that “Eid this time seems to be spread through the whole week, rather than a single day where the whole nation celebrates!”, Silly Bahraini Girl took the opportunity to express her sense of loss and total lack of achievement as she continues to sulk.
“I still wake up early everyday and I seem to be busy the whole day and night but don't ask me what I do during all this time since I really don't have anything tangible to show for it.
I suppose I have mastered the act almost all civil servants are experts at .. seeming busy without having to show anything for their wages.
I don't know what it is. I can't put my finger on it.. but it doesn't matter. This wasn't the reason I logged on today. I just wanted to wish you a Happy Eid,” she rants.
With people busy celebrating and ranting, Bahrain continues to stifle freedom of expression by shutting yet another website, bringing the number of blocked sites in the tiny kingdom to 10.
“It appears that someone who is really shaking in his boots and deems it very necessary to protect us from ourselves and protect the country from those nefarious people hell bent on toppling the government has done the right thing™ and blocked…
1. The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights website…
Well done! I am sure the blocking of these sites will contribute greatly to the country's standing in the Freedom of the Press index, the Human Rights index (which Bahrain actually is on that council in the UN!!) and will also assist Shaikha Haya bint Rashed Al-Khalifa in her role as the PRESIDENT of the United Nations and gain her and Bahrain even more respect and credibility to continue to be in that role,” writes an angry Mahmood.
Back in Bahrain, Bint Battuta is waking up to the reality of being a woman in a men's world! It isn't an easy feat, especially when you have gossiping neighbors and relatives, who interfere in every small step you take and obsessed men, who cannot control themselves in front of women.
Since coming back I have been staying at a Bahraini friend’s house; she’s out of the country, and she kindly offered to let me stay there while I look for a flat. In those few days one of my friends visited me twice. He’s also a friend of her family, we were never alone in the house, and I never imagined – stupidly, I realise now – that it would be a problem (how many years have I lived in the Middle East?!). But whether thanks to nosy neighbours or gossiping servants or relatives with nothing better to do, news was delivered to my friend abroad that I was being a loose woman and bringing shame to the neighbourhood (I assume). She, in great embarrassment (because personally she doesn’t care what does or doesn’t happen under her roof), called our friend and asked that he didn’t visit anymore, because of the problems that might be caused by neighbours and relatives.
With too much time on his hand, Haitham Sabbah puts one and one together and announces that his blog attracts Desperate Housewives.
He has stumbled across a new ratings service, which has told him that his site was mostly attracting married women with children.
One of the interesting results I found about my blog (sabbah.biz) is that 80 percent of the visitors are females.
Sounds I'm sexy :)
Not really.
Looking closer, I found that 85 percent of them have children ages 6-17, which means that US housewives like my blog
Meanwhile, MSB is suffering from insomnia and can't seem to ‘fix’ her sleeping habit.
I sit there chatting to family and friends in the US & UK until THEY tell me that they're going to bed. Do I take that as a sign and get myself to bed?? Nope. I just look for something else to do to kill time.
It is now 9 am. I am still awake. I will go pass out for a few hours. Hope to resolve this matter tonight when I will ATTEMPT to go to bed early!
She isn't the only Bahraini blogger with this problem for SuperNitfah, who writes from the UK, raises the same concern.
I just got out of the shower, blow-dried my hair, and I still can't sleep.
I'm worrying too much over little stuff. This is bad.