Hundreds of Bahraini women have taken to the streets on Thursday to protest against the detention of protesters who took part in pro-democracy protests earlier in the year.

The protest came on the same day as Bahrain sentanced 20 doctors and nurses for between five and 15 years on charges of incitement, the state news agency said, in what critics claimed was reprisal for treating pro-democracy activists in February.

Ahlam al-Khezaei, the head of women's affairs for the main Shiite Wefaq party, described the sentences as cruel and told the all female crowd: "We ask for all women prisoners to be freed and for all charges against them to be dropped."