Women demonstration in Bahrain demand the resignation of attorney general

Scores of women in Bahrain demonstrated on Saturday demanding the resignation of the attorney general Sheikh Abdul Rahman Bin Jabber Al- Khalifa and several judges in the courts and to issue the civil status law.

The demonstrating women rang the bells "in a symbolic act to the authorities to wake up," according to the chairperson of the women petition Ghada Jamshir.

Jamshir explained that the demonstration came to demand the correction of "wrong" positions in the attorney and legal courts and introducing reforms targeting all levels of the Attorney General and courts and supporting their independence.

A statement by the women petition committee circulated during the demonstration said that the committee noted that the Attorney General "keeps women's complaints against their husbands from moving forward -- cases which very often are within the course of beating, kidnapping children, looting or stealing the money of the wife." The women petition committee was formed in 2001 under the reforms which took place in Bahrain, in particular demanding the reforms of judiciary.

The issuance of the civil status law is considered the main request demanded by women societies and the women's higher council which is chaired by the wife of the King of Bahrain, but it is strongly opposed by men of religion especially the Shiite.