Bahraini children prevented from receiving Shia religious education

The Bahraini government has worked on erasing the culture and history of the indigenous Bahrainis

Sayed Ahmed Al-Wadaei, the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), made a statement at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in which he tackled the abuses that the indigenous Bahrainis are being subjected to in the island kingdom.

Al-Wedai said: “The Bahraini government has worked on erasing the culture and history of the indigenous Bahrainis,” pointing out that “the government does not promote the indigenous Bahraini heritage sites.”

In this context, he tackled the education policies that are based on discrimination as “most of Bahraini Shia students have been prevented from receiving their Shia religious education, although Shia constitute the majority.

The religious education curriculum in schools affiliated to the Ministry of Education is restricted to teaching religion within the Sunni jurisprudence, 

He also highlighted that the authorities “demolished 38 significant mosques and religious sites for the indigenous Bahraini aiming at erasing their history.