Bahrain: Residents of Hoora have long complained of prostitution rackets and revellers taking over the streets of Exhibition Avenue. They now claim that hotels refuse to rent to women because they want to promote the area as Manama’s “red light district”. The GDN investigates...
Women are not allowed to rent flats in many hotels and apartment buildings in a notorious district in Manama, it has been uncovered.
The GDN sent one of its female reporters to at least seven hotels and apartment buildings on Exhibition Avenue that refused to rent out available spaces.
According to Bahraini law, while it is legal to restrict renting to families, it is illegal to discriminate between single renters based on gender.
The GDN has previously reported on various incidents and assaults on the infamous street, as well as repeated and often daily harassment that women working there face, including university students and policewomen in uniform.
In one apartment building, the porter freely admitted that women were not allowed to rent because “massage women” worked in the building.
“We don’t rent to women, only bachelors,” he said.
“We have (massage women) here and we are told not to rent to anyone else.”
This was a sentiment repeated across a number of hotels and apartment buildings down the street, including a newly- built luxury apartment tower.
“We will only rent to families and bachelors,” a receptionist told the GDN.
“We are a bachelor hotel, so we will not rent to women.”
Another apartment tower, which had allegedly closed for several months following complaints from nearby Umm Salama Intermediate Girls School, also refused to admit female customers.
“After all the problems we faced before, we will not allow women to rent,” a worker told the GDN.
Area resident Umar Al Mohammad said such attitudes gave a negative impression of Bahrain.
“I had several friends visiting from the UK who needed to be able to find cheap accommodation for a week,” he told the GDN.
“So I went into several of the buildings in the area, but all of them flat out refused to let me rent.
“They said they would rent to men, but not women.
“It was incredibly embarrassing to be put in that situation with visitors to Bahrain – what impression would it give them?”
He added that there were often Bangladeshi pimps outside his apartment building, but calling the police proved fruitless.
“When I call the Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) at night, they say call back in the morning, we don’t lodge complaints at night – but in the morning the issue isn’t there,” he explained.
“What are we supposed to do in that case?
“In addition to that, whenever we have a complaint, we’re told we have to file a complaint in person at a police station.
“Why should someone who is being harassed or bothered by these drunks have to be the one who goes out of their way to go to a police station?
“What we need is an anonymous hotline that we can call into.”
Exhibition Avenue is also frequently cited online as the “red light district” of Bahrain, with sites such as Wiki Sex Guide providing a Bahrain page as a guide on where and how to find prostitutes, with many listing the area as a primary destination.
“We also have a serious problem with drunks who come out of clubs and urinate outside buildings,” added Mr Al Mohammed.
“Near my building is the Hoora Public Park, and there used to be a club opposite.
“The men would come out drunk and urinate on the walls of the park.
“The park is open late so children would be in the park – it’s insane, it’s a children’s play area and you have men urinating.”
Read more on next slide
&uuid=(email))