Bahrain: Father-daughter activist duo debilitated by hunger strike as more activists arrested
Bahraini protestors wave their national flag during an anti-government rally to demand reforms on March 19, 2013 in the village of Belad al-Qadeem, in a suburb of Manama. Sunni-ruled Shiite-majority Bahrain has seen two years of political unrest linked to opposition demands for a constitutional monarchy that has killed at least 80 people, according to human rights watchdogs.
Rights groups in Bahrain expressed concern over jailed activists Zainab al-Khawaja and her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, as they continue a potentially deadly hunger strike in protest against the government, reported ABC News.
Doctors said Tuesday that Zainab's weakened condition put her at a high risk of cardiac arrest, coma, or organ failure, said the International Business Times.
The news came as 13 anti-government activists were handed 10-year jail terms on Tuesday on charges of attacking the police during uprisings in Bahrain two years ago, according to ABC.
Twenty-nine-year-old Zainab, mother to a three-year-old daughter, is "coughing up blood from her throat and nose," her sister Maryam told IBTimes.
The girls' father, Abdulhadi, arrested in the spring of 2011, was hospitalized after going on hunger strike.
Abdulhadi helped found the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, an organization now run by Maryam.
Over 60 people have been killed in ongoing anti-government demonstrations in Bahrain inspired by the Arab Spring protests, said ABC News.
Bahrain, a critical US ally in the region, is predominantly Shiite but governed by a Sunni royal family.