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Jalila al-Salman Teacher in Bahraini Prison

by Courtesy

Female Teacher Forgotten in Bahraini Prison
20 July, 2011 – By Stephanie El Rayess
Human Rights Defenders

Jalila al-Salman was arrested in March for her alleged role in coordinating a teachers’ strike following the February and March protests that called for government reform.

In addition to opposition members, human rights defenders, peaceful protesters, students and athletes, the Bahraini government is cracking down on its teachers. Teachers like Jalila al-Salman who was arrested in March for her alleged role in coordinating a teachers’ strike following the February and March protests that called for government reform. Over 40 security officers raided Jalila’s home in late March and arrested her in front of her three children. Jalila is still locked up, and her family claims she has been tortured. She may get her day in court, though no exact word on when.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights raised alarm of the government’s violent crackdown on the Bahraini Teacher’s Association (BTA) and the country’s teachers in a recently released report. According to their findings, many have been subjected to arbitrary arrests, military prosecution, torture, suspensions, salary cuts, and investigations due to their support of the peaceful demonstrations. Education International, a global federation of teacher unions, also condemned the Bahrain’s Ministry of Social Development’s decision to dissolve the BTA and to prosecute its leaders in military courts, calling it a “serious assault on teachers’ rights.”

Jalila has devoted her life to education. Her colleagues describe her sincerity, work ethic, and passion for teaching students and helping faculty over her 25 year career as an educator. Because of her years’ long struggle to improve teaching conditions in Bahrain, she faced numerous threats and was passed over for promotion. In addition to her work at Saba Secondary School, Jalila was the Vice-President of the BTA, which was formed as a substitute to the teachers’ union after the government’s 2003 ban on all unions in the public sector. …more