Country · BH
Bahrain
البحرين בחריין3 parties on file · 1 currently in government
Timeline · 2 events
Region timeline →-
Ali Salman sentenced to life
Al-Wefaq Secretary-General Ali Salman, originally detained in 2014, was sentenced to life in prison on 2018-11-04 on espionage charges. He remains imprisoned. The 2016 court-ordered dissolution of Al-Wefaq itself was a separate proceeding.
-
Bahraini uprising and Saudi/UAE intervention
A Shia-majority popular uprising at Pearl Roundabout began on 2011-02-14 demanding political reform. Saudi Arabia and UAE intervened militarily in March 2011 under the GCC Peninsula Shield Force to suppress it. The crackdown has shaped Bahraini politics since; Al-Wefaq was dissolved in 2016.
Marquee bills
All bills →Compass · Bahrain
Country mean — Economic +1.3, Social -7.5
Ringed dots are parties currently in government. See the full regional compass · hand-coded estimates; methodology.
Current leadership
- Head of state In gov
King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa حمد بن عيسى آل خليفة
Independent
King of Bahrain since 2002 (Emir from 1999). Head of the Al Khalifa dynasty that has ruled Bahrain since 1783.
- Head of government In gov
Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa سلمان بن حمد آل خليفة
Independent
Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Bahrain since November 2020. Architect of Bahrain's post-2011 economic reform and normalization track.
- Party leader
Ali Salman علي سلمان
Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society
Secretary-General of Al-Wefaq, Bahrain's largest Shia opposition party (dissolved by court order in 2016). Imprisoned in Bahrain since 2014 on a life sentence after charges related to a recorded conversation with Qatari officials during a brief 2011 mediation attempt. Al-Wefaq's 2002-2010 parliamentary participation produced the only sustained organized Shia electoral presence in the Gulf; the dissolution closed that experiment.
- Activist
Maryam al-Khawaja مريم الخواجة
Independent
Bahraini-Danish human-rights activist; daughter of imprisoned Bahraini opposition leader Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. Co-founded the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Based in Denmark; arrested whenever she has attempted to return to Bahrain to visit her imprisoned father.
- Activist
Nabeel Rajab نبيل رجب
Independent
Bahraini human-rights activist; president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and former president of the Gulf Center for Human Rights. Imprisoned repeatedly since 2012 on charges related to tweets and articles; released to alternative sentence in 2020.
Parties
- Al-Menbar Islamic Society جمعية المنبر الوطني الإسلامية
Led by · Ali Ahmed
Sunni Brotherhood-aligned political society, generally pro-government but more centrist than Al-Asalah. Participates in elections; small parliamentary footprint.
- Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society جمعية الوفاق الوطني الإسلامية
Led by · Ali Salman (imprisoned)
Bahrain's largest Shia opposition political society. Won 17 of 18 contested seats in 2010 before boycotting subsequent elections over the 2011 uprising crackdown. Dissolved by court order in July 2016; its leader Ali Salman is serving a life sentence.
- Islamic Asalah Society جمعية الأصالة الإسلامية
Led by · Adel Al Moawda
Sunni Salafi political society aligned with the Bahraini government; consistently part of the ruling parliamentary coalition since 2002.
Source documents · 4
All docs →- Kingdom of Bahrain statement to the 80th UN General Assembly, 26 Sep 2025 (English translation of Arabic original) — first Bahraini UN row, under leadership of King Hamad 736 words
- تصريح الأمين العام لجمعية المنبر الوطني الإسلامي — مراجعة برنامج العمل (Al-Menbar SG programmatic statement) 167 words
- Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society — written evidence to the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee (Bahrain inquiry), February 2013 271 words
- جمعية الأصالة الإسلامية — "عن الجمعية" + مطلب إنشاء اللجنة العليا لتطبيق الشريعة الإسلامية (Al-Asalah Islamic Society self-definition + flagship sharia plank) 179 words
Briefs from Bahrain
Hand-written political-science mini-papers involving Bahrain parties. 1 brief on file.
How to cite
Each record carries a retrieval date because the dataset is live — individual entries update as verification deepens. Use the per-record citation when referencing this specific profile; use the dataset citation below when referencing the project as a whole.
In-text: (Gara, 2026)
Per-record citation
APA 7Reference list · academic default
Gara, T. (2026). Bahrain [Country profile]. Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/BH
Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals
Gara, Tarek. 2026. "Bahrain." Country profile, Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Accessed June 21, 2026. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/BH.
BibTeXFor LaTeX / Zotero / reference managers
@misc{tayyar-country-bh,
title = {{Bahrain}},
author = {Gara, Tarek},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset},
type = {Country profile},
url = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/BH},
urldate = {2026-06-21},
note = {First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.}
} Dataset / working-paper citation
If you're citing Tayyar as a project rather than this individual record.
APA 7Preprint
Gara, T. (2026). Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset [Preprint]. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper
BibTeXPreprint
@unpublished{tayyar-preprint,
title = {{Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset}},
author = {Gara, Tarek},
year = {2026},
type = {Preprint},
url = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper},
urldate = {2026-06-21},
note = {Living document, regenerated from the live dataset on page load.}
} First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.