Three years since the beginning of the crackdown on calls for human freedoms, security and an end to discrimination and corruption, Bahrain looks to have entered a period of spiraling repression and uncertainty.
The state was quick to characterize those who took part in protests as agents of neighboring Iran, "Shiite militants" and traitors. While protesters from both sects stood against sectarianism and held banners displaying messages of “Shiite and Sunni brothers,” the government played a foul public relations campaign to divide and conquer for an overall objective of power maintenance. It failed.