Political turmoil mars Bahrain’s arts and culture reputation

Manama, Bahrain — The hotels are quiet and the shopping malls desolate. The sex and alcohol tourists from Saudi Arabia, who once poured over the causeway connecting this relatively liberal island nation to its fundamentalist neighbor, no longer flock to the bars. A thin veneer of normalcy prevails on the streets by day, but at night a curfew descends, amid persistent reports of political arrests, physical attacks and destroyed mosques, as the Sunni-led government continues its crackdown against a mostly Shiite opposition to the governing monarchy.

Bahrain, the so-called “Pearl of the Gulf,” has lost its luster. As international human rights groups and Western governments condemned Bahrain’s reprisals against participants in the Arab Spring uprisings, one particularly cherished part of the country’s image took a hard hit — its reputation for promoting arts and culture. The ruling al-Khalifa family is struggling to preserve its global stature as cultural patrons, sponsors of an ambitious program of museum building and historical preservation, and generous hosts to international visitors who once flocked to Bahrain for art and sport.

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There were demonstrations in Iran and protests in Shiite communities elsewhere this spring over the crackdown on Bahrain's pro-democracy movement.

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Middle East and North Africa in turmoil

More on this Story

• The fall of Bahrain's democratic icon
• Bahrain losing luster as center of arts and culture
• Government crackdown hits middle-class Shiites hard
• U.S.’s muted objections draw criticism

View all Items in this Story

• Democratic hopes give way to sectarian concerns
• In Bahrain, no one is left for dialogue
• Curfew in Manama after security clears protesters
• Bahrain's security forces torture pro-democracy demonstrators

In the latest blow, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has scrubbed plans for Bahrain to host the cultural organization’s annual meeting in June.

“Now they will have it in Paris,” says the furious minister of culture, Sheikha Mai bint Mohammed al-Khalifa. “It’s unfair. Everything was on track, a thousand delegates, the first time it was to be held in the region.”

This comes after a major Formula One race was canceled and a renowned Lebanese composer and oud player, Marcel Khalife, pulled out of the annual Bahrain Spring of Culture series, most of which was canceled as the protests and killings continued into March.

Sheikha Mai’s anger, like that of many Sunnis associated with the government of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, is intensely focused on the protesters.

“They don’t care about the image of Bahrain,” says the elegantly dressed member of the ruling family.

The opposition, however, says the ongoing campaign of arrests, torture and beatings is what’s destroying the reputation of the country, which is divided between a Shiite majority, with little political or economic power, and a ruling Sunni minority.

Cultural branding

Image is everything in the Persian Gulf, and Western cultural credibility has been an essential strategy for countries such as Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, which are small, undemocratic, dependent on investment, and eager to be both cultural and commercial hubs.

Abu Dhabi has hired star architects Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando and Jean Nouvel to design museums, concert halls and other palaces of culture. Dubai hosts an annual film festival and Art Dubai, a global art forum. In 2009, Qatar opened the Museum of Islamic Art in a gleaming, geometric ziggurat designed by I.M. Pei, the same architect who designed the East Wing of Washington’s National Gallery of Art.

“These aren’t just destinations or city-states; they are also brands,” says Toby Jones, professor of Middle Eastern history at Rutgers University. Cultural trophy events, he says, not only satisfy the egos of the ruling elites, which wish to be seen as progressive and cosmopolitan, they also diversify the economy, bringing in tourist dollars and foreign investment.