The earliest demonstration started at 5:30 a.m. in Nuwaidrat, and the last took place just minutes before midnight in the vicinity of Salmaniya Medical Complex heading to the Pearl Roundabout.

[2]: 162  In the 1950s, following sectarian clashes, the National Union Committee was formed by reformists; it demanded an elected popular assembly and carried out protests and general strikes.

[16] In recent decades, Bahrain has moved towards banking and tourism,[17] making it one of the most important financial hubs in the region; it has since held some of the top international rankings in economic freedom[18] and business-friendly countries,[19] making it, as of 2012, the freest economy in the Middle East, according to the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom, published by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal.

[49] However, Royal Decree 56 of 2002 gave effective immunity to all those accused of torture during the uprising in the 1990s and before (including notorious figures such as Ian Henderson[50] and Adel Flaifel.[51]).

[61][62] Inspired by the successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia,[1] opposition activists began in January to post on a large scale to the social media websites Facebook and Twitter and online forums, and to send e-mails and text messages with calls to stage major pro-democracy protests.

[65] Another online group called "The Youth of the February 14th Revolution" described itself as "unaffiliated with any political movement or organisation" and rejected any "religious, sectarian or ideological bases" for their demands.

[2]: 65 Bahraini youths described their plans as an appeal for Bahrainis "to take to the streets on Monday 14 February in a peaceful and orderly manner in order to rewrite the constitution and to establish a body with a full popular mandate to investigate and hold to account economic, political, and social violations, including stolen public wealth, political naturalisation, arrests, torture and other oppressive security measures, [and] institutional and economic corruption.

[66] The day had a symbolic value;[53] it was the tenth anniversary of a referendum in favor of the National Action Charter which had promised to introduce democratic reforms following the 1990s uprising.

[2]: 66 A few weeks before the protests, the Cabinet of Bahrain made a number of concessions, including increasing social spending and offering to free some of the minors arrested in the Manama incident in August.

[53] In the Khutbah preceding Friday prayer, Shiekh Isa Qassim, a leading Shia cleric, said "the winds of change in the Arab world [are] unstoppable".

[2]: 67 Appearing on the state media, king Hamad announced that each family would be given 1,000 Bahraini Dinars ($2,650) to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the National Action Charter referendum.

[70] The next day, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights sent an open letter to the king urging him to avoid a "worst-case scenario" by introducing a wide range of reforms, including "releasing more than 450 detainees including [Bahraini] human rights defenders, religious figures and more than 110 children, dissolv[ing] the security apparatus and prosecut[ing] its official[s] responsible [for] violations".

[53] At night, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on a small group of youth who organized a protest in Karzakan after a wedding ceremony.

[5] Helicopters hovered over areas where marches were due to take place[1] and the presence of security forces was heavy in a number of key locations such as the Central Business District, shopping malls and Bab Al Bahrain.

The traffic directorate closed a number of roads such as those leading to Pearl Roundabout, Dana mall, Al Daih and parts of Budaiya highway in order to anticipate any non-permitted protests.

Police continued to disperse rallies throughout the day with tear gas, rubber bullets, and shotguns, causing additional injuries, and hospitalizing three more demonstrators.

According to witnesses interviewed by Physicians for Human Rights, hundreds of fully armed riot police arrived on the scene and immediately began firing tear gas and sound grenades into the crowds.

In Bilad Al Qadeem, protesters held a sit-in at afternoon and started marching at evening, after which security forces intervened to disperse them.

The government asserts that the police exhausted their supply of tear gas and rubber bullets in a failed attempt to disperse the crowd, and resorted to the use of shotguns.

[2]: 83  Protests involving up to one-fifth of the population continued over the next month[93][94][95] until the government called in Gulf Cooperation Council troops and police and declared a three-month state of emergency.

Bahrain king Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa announced in a rare televised speech that the deaths of Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima and Fadhel Al-Matrook would be investigated.

[103] As part of a string of protests that occurred across the Arab World following the self-immolation and eventual death of Mohammed Bouazizi in the Tunisian revolution, the mostly Shia population of Bahrain took to the streets demanding greater freedoms.

At least fourteen people were injured in clashes overnight and with police having fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters in the village of Nuwaidrat, south west of Bahrain.

[109] According to eyewitnesses, more than 2,000 were starting to gather by the hospital gates in order to take part in the procession,[102] when riot police used tear gas and shotguns to disperse the crowd.

[102] An eyewitness, Shaker Mohammed Abdulhussain, who was also injured, told Al Wasat that police cars were parked near the Salmaniya Medical Complex gates where the funeral was supposed to move out from.

Then a man wearing full black came from outside the funeral and threw a stone at riot police, who then started firing rubber bullets and bird pellets indiscriminately.

[112] In a rare national TV address on Tuesday, February 15, King Hamad expressed regret, offered his "deep condolences" to the families of those killed and announced a ministerial probe into the events.

[3] In reference to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, Hussain al-Rumeihy, a member of Parliament, said on 15 February it was wrong for protesters to copy the events of other Arab countries, because the situation in Bahrain is different.

[113] On the other hand, Al Wefaq, the country's largest opposition party suspended their participation in the Parliament on 15 February and threatened to resign, in protest of what it called "the brutal practices of security forces".

[108] The Bahrain Human Rights Society criticized the government response to protests of 14th and 15th, accusing it of censorship and non-compliance with international covenants that it had signed.