CAIRO — A political dissident from Bahrain, who was recently released from prison after the government there faced international outrage, said on Saturday that she had fled the country after she was threatened again with detention.
The dissident, Zainab al-Khawaja, had been one of the last vocal pro-democracy activists remaining in the country amid a five-year government crackdown on dissent. Since facing an uprising in 2011, Bahrain’s ruling monarchy has imprisoned prominent activists and opposition leaders or stripped them of citizenship. Other dissidents have either quieted their criticism of the government or left the country.
Ms. Khawaja, 32, a dual citizen of Bahrain and Denmark who was imprisoned along with her infant son, was released on humanitarian grounds in May, and left Bahrain for Denmark last week. She said in an interview that Bahraini officials had warned the Danish Embassy that if she did not leave, she would be rearrested within months and separated from her son.
“I have been arrested 11 times,” she said in a telephone interview from Denmark. “I have done all I can do inside of prison.”
The steady disappearance of Bahrain’s opposition has mirrored the broader repression of political life across the Persian Gulf states after the 2011 revolts, which unnerved the region’s monarchs. The rulers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have all taken forceful action against dissidents as part of what some analysts have termed a “counterrevolution” to quell domestic democratic movements.
The monarchies have frequently justified these crackdowns as a reaction to external threats, from either transnational Islamist movements or from hostile states like Iran. The rulers have joined forces, including prosecuting those who criticize friendly gulf nations, or have shared tactics, like revoking opponents’ citizenship.
As the numbers of dissidents in exile grow, they have complained that Western nations with close financial and military ties to the gulf have been reluctant to press for reforms.
Bahrain is one of the closest allies of the United States in the Persian Gulf region and hosts the Navy’s Fifth Fleet. After Ms. Khawaja was detained in March on charges that included ripping a photograph of Bahrain’s king, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, the State Department publicly called for her release.
Bahrain’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ms. Khawaja’s father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, is serving a life sentence in Bahrain for participating in the 2011 uprising. Her sister, Maryam al-Khawaja, a prominent activist, also lives in exile in Denmark.
