Bahrain’s ongoing attempt to change the subject of international conversation about the kingdom away from its crackdown on dissent took an awkward turn over the weekend, when the nation’s foreign minister posted a message on Twitter thanking the American celebrity Kim Kardashian for saying nice things about the country during a brief visit to open a milkshake shop.
Thank you 🙂 “@KimKardashian: I just got to Bahrain! OMG can I move here please? Prettiest place on earth!”
The awkwardness stemmed from the fact that, as several people reminded the royal minister, he represents a Sunni Muslim monarchy with close ties to the conservative rulers of neighboring Saudi Arabia, while Ms. Kardashian notoriously “made her debut on the public stage in the form of a sex tape.”
Bahrainis opposed to Ms. Kardashian’s visit to a local mall called The Walk on Saturday — either on religious grounds or as a distraction from the stifling of the protest movement that began in 2011 — were quick to point out the contradictions.
@TheWalkBahrain @kimkardashian
And the porn star.Sorry but it is the truth.
According to an Associated Press report, before Ms. Kardashian arrived at the milkshake shop, tear gas was fired at religious conservatives, one of whom was holding up a sign that read, “none of our customs and traditions allow us to receive stars of porn movies.”
The opposition activist Zainab Alkhawaja, who uses her @AngryArabiya Twitter feed to document the security crackdown in Bahrain for about 48,000 followers, scoffed at the words of praise from Ms. Kardashian, whose observations and endorsements are read by nearly 17 million users of the social network.
While kardashian tweets abt #Bahrains beauty, gov punishes prisoners w/ beatings,chemical spray solitary confinement #HeroesinChains
Video of the event at the milkshake shop, posted online by the owners of the chain who flew Ms. Kardashian to Bahrain, showed that most of the fans drawn to see her at the mall were young women and girls. According to a press release accompanying the footage, one unidentified fan, who perhaps has a career in brand management ahead of her, said, “Kim Kardashian has thousands of fans in Bahrain. Not only is she beautiful, she is an icon of what a woman should be in the modern world. She is strong, independent and smart. She is a successful businesswoman and we love her for that.”
The video also shows that Ms. Kardashian was careful to thank the Hollywood promoter and milkshake magnate who brought her there, Sheeraz Hasan, by name. As Sara Yasin explained in a post on the visit for the Index on Censorship’s blog, Uncut, Mr. Hasan and his business partner Paresh A. Shah, “appear to have an interesting relationship with Bahrain’s royal family. According to their official website, the two were given a ‘mandate to source unique investment opportunities outside of Bahrain and developing infrastructure within Bahrain’ after meeting with the royal family earlier this year.”
Ms. Yasin added: “Hasan and Shah traveled to Bahrain only weeks before the controversial Bahrain Grand Prix in April, with Hasan tweeting a photograph of himself with Shah and a pair of Rolexes the Bahraini royal family delivered to their plane. Hasan first made mention of their unique mandate in May, shortly after returning from the trip.”
We would like to thank the Royal Family of Bahrain they just delivered a pair of Rolex Watches to our plane We Love U! http://t.co/eFLS0Vtc
Mr. Hasan’s Twitter home page, which displays a photograph of him shaking hands with President Barack Obama, boasts that his company “has the authority to bring deals and investment opportunities from around the world to present directly to the Royal Families of Qatar and Bahrain.” On Monday, he posted an update explaining that he was still in Bahrain, working on the launch of a new venture called Bahrain.tv.
STILL IN BAHRAIN DISCUSSING OUR NEXT MAJOR BUSINESS VENTURE BAHRAIN.TV – WATCH PROMOS http://t.co/rkUUgxbz http://t.co/4c6Hys1h
According to a promotional video for Bahrain.tv Mr. Hasan urged his readers to watch, Ms. Kardashian’s visit to the kingdom might have been something of a trial run for a more extended effort to shift news coverage away from protest marches, tear gas and the arrest of dissidents for posting critical messages on Twitter. The new site, it seems, will be devoted to “promoting Bahrain to the world,” in part by “bringing the word’s biggest celebrities, sports stars and business icons to Bahrain.”
Over images of a Formula One race and children enjoying an amusement park, the pitch explains that Bahrain.tv will also act as a portal for “up-to-the-minute news from Bahrain, as all the action happens,” and offer “unprecedented coverage of the nation on Bahrain that surpasses the surface-level reporting of most mainstream media.”
Judging by the promotional clip, the glossy, edited, reality-television version of life in Bahrain promised by Bahrain.tv will not include any sign of the kingdom’s pro-democracy protests — at least not after the producers are asked to cut from their ad for the site the brief glimpse they included of one of the nation’s former landmarks, the Pearl Monument, which was an icon of the the protest movement until it was destroyed by the government last year after the deadly crackdown began.
Bahrian.tv, via YouTube A monument to Bahrain’s history as a pearl-fishing center, which was destroyed by the government after it became an icon of the protest movement in 2011.