Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain Watch launched a website entitled 200 More Stories, in response to a The #200stories Competition launched by the British Council  to celebrate "200 years of relations between the UK and Bahrain"

The British Council's competition kicked off on April 17, 2016 and will end in August. The competition invites anyone living in Bahrain or the UK to share their best Bahrain-UK memories, whether those were created here in Bahrain or in the UK. Although the Council extended the deadline, no piece was showcased on the website to date.

Bahrain Watch's initiative; however, has a different aspect to it, as it aims at educating people more fully through realistic critical perspectives of the British and Bahraini relations.

Bahrain Watch also used "theme" designed for the British Council competition in a remarkably symbolic fashion.

Marc Owen Jones, member of Bahrain Watch and Research Fellow at Exeter University's Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies department, said; "there is a danger that the British Council competition will cherry pick only the sanitized stories, whitewashing an often toxic Bahrain­-Britain friendship, one that has included torture, oppression, and the institutionalisation of gross inequality."

"This website will make sure those stories get heard too. Many people are also reluctant about submitting their critical stories to an organisation that works closely with the British government," he added.

Bahrain Watch said that #200MoreStories provides insights into the far-ranging and brutal complexities of the colonial and postcolonial relationship, from segregation to torture, using a combination of archival research and non-fictional personal narratives, including stories from expats.

The organization confirmed that it will continually update the website with new content, and encourages those with stories, articles, or accounts, to send text either in Arabic or English, photographs, or multimedia.

Arabic Version