Ali Salman - Role in 1990s Uprising in Bahrain

Role in 1990s Uprising in Bahrain

Ali Salman is widely perceived to have been one of the leaders of the 1990s uprising in Bahrain. The starting point of the uprising is described as having been a charity marathon organised in November 1994 by several foreign companies. As the marathon runners, both men and women dressed in shorts and t-shirts, entered some Shia villages, groups of villagers headed by activist clerics tried to stop them, considering that running among them in such light clothing was a direct insult to their religious and moral values. Events disintegrated into fist-fighting and stone throwing. The same night, security forces arrested several of the protesters, including Ali Salman. His arrest sparked a cycle of mass-demonstrations that led to the death of a dozen demonstrators and the incarceration of hundreds of others. Salman was the leader of several of these demonstrations.

Following his arrest in 1994, Salman was exiled and made his way to London, where he associated with the Bahrain Freedom Movement, an opposition group led by Saeed al-Shehabi. Salman worked independently from the group but was in cooperation with them in order to achieve the political demands of the Bahrain uprising, mainly by releasing regular communiqués distributed in Bahrain in which they demanded the reinstatement of the Parliament.