Bahrain was supposed to be different. It had loose alcohol regulations, sex shops, and even a Jewish woman — Nancy Khadori — in its parliament. But 2011 was not a good year for Bahrain’s ruling family, led by the all-powerful King Hamad.

This March, as is known by many, protests rocked the usually stable island kingdom. The Shia majority demanded political rights from the ruling Sunnis — largely to no avail. Eventually, a brutal crackdown took place in which dozens (officially, but I suspect the real figures are substantially higher) were killed. Hundreds of Saudi and Emirati troops streamed into Manama to restore order, instituting curfews and arresting key leaders and activists. Though the Bahraini opposition has repeatedly said otherwise, the ruling class accuses it of collaboration with Shia Iran, its ever-convenient boogeyman. I am reminded of Saddam Hussein’s numerous accusations in the nineties that Iraqi Shiites were a fifth column, solely existing to serve Iranian interests.

The truth is that behind the facade of progressiveness of every Gulf state lays age-old instruments of state oppression. Not that every Gulf country is the same; some, like Oman, are genuinely interested in freedom. And King Hamad, by the region’s standards, could be much worse. He is no Ahmadinejad. But if Bahrain shows us anything, it is that the Persian Gulf’s Sunni status quo (see: Saudi Arabia and the Emirates) will collaborate to immense lengths to preserve itself.

There is a silver lining. The deposition of Mubarak in Egypt, though a first step, is a momentous one. Interestingly, Anne Applebaum recently wrote in Slate that the protests in the Middle East resemble the continent-wide revolutions of 1848 in Europe. The parallel is relevant since the 1848 uprisings did not lead to democracy immediately, but several decades later, Europe became a much freer place.

But in the Middle East the struggle remains long, hard, and in the short-term, often fruitless. In fact, Bahrain has moved to completely ban two major opposition parties this month, only to be stopped under major pressure from the United States. Mohamed al-Tajer, a Bahraini human rights lawyer, was detained Saturday. And even in the United Arab Emirates, a stable benevolent dictatorship, bloggers are still being arrested — Ahmed Mansoor the most recent one.

Gaddafi still stands defiant in Tripoli, so does Assad from the rotting concrete of Damascus. Dictators are by no means an endangered species in the Middle East, least of all the Gulf. Yet.

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