To the Head of Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry investigators, Mr. Khalid M. Ahmed,
I don’t think you remember me. My name is Eman Oun, an expelled student from Bahrain Polytechnic. On the 13th of August, I came to your office along with other expelled students from UoB, BTC and of course, Bahrain Polytechnic, to document our cases. To be honest, the meeting with you was not as I expected! After you asked me a couple of questions about my case, taking less than two minutes, you asked me to leave the place three times.Even though I kept informing you that I am the representative of the Bahrain Polytechnic case, and I have a scheduled meeting with the investigators of your team later on. As a response to your persistent request, I waited outside in the horrible humid weather. I understand that you and the rest of your team must be having a lot pressure with everything going on in Bahrain, yet I am pretty sure you knew the amount of responsibilities that would be placed upon you before agreeing to take this position.
I am not writing this email to complain, or question the credibility of the work of your team. The truth is, I really disliked some of the published statements by the commission. However, I am not the kind of person who would judge beforehand, and neither is any of us, hence, we shall wait and see the outcomes. I am writing this email to follow up on our case and remind you of our demands.
When I met with three investigators of your team that day, they seemed very positive, optimistic, as they voluntarily suggested the idea of having weekly meetings with the representatives to follow up.With that said, it is now almost four weeks since that day and I have heard nothing from them so far.
On the 27th of August, the deputy CEO of the Bahrain Polytechnic, Mohammed Al Asiri published a statement announcing the reinstatement of 31 student only. He added “The administration will contact the students who are allowed to come back during the upcoming period, as long as they abide by the internal regulations of the Polytechnic.“
A questions that strikes here first of all is: Why only 31 students when the total number of expelled students is over 60? Keeping in mind that we have almost identical expulsion letters.
Secondly, regarding abiding the internal regulations of Polytechnic, did it work the first time? I strongly advise you to ask the Polytechnic for our investigation statements as they have written all the questions they have asked along with our answers. I dare you to find any question related to anything internal, as all the questions were not even related to Polytechnic or activities that occurred within the campus. They focused on personal questions, disregarding our privacy. This brings me back to the question: Why were we expelled in the first place? They might attempt to justify dismissing employees from the public and private sectors by saying that it was because of their absent percentage, but the Polytechnic was closed during the whole period of unrest in Bahrain, and when it reopened, we resumed our classes normally. They might have frail attempts to tamper with the facts, by justifying the expulsion of the University of Bahrain students, as a result of the protests that happened inside the campus, but in our case, no demonstration or protest occurred inside the campus of Bahrain Polytechnic. They also might attempt to justify dismissing students from schools by saying they were involved in acts of violence, but looking back, no clashes ever took place inside Bahrain Polytechnic. I wonder how they would attempt to justify our expulsion.
These points certainly clarify that our expulsion was unjust.
Regarding our demands, the immediate return of ALL Bahrain Polytechnic expelled students without exceptions is needed, and it is at the top of our list of demands. We strongly demand not to repeat the previous semester as we were only few weeks away from finishing the semester when they expelled us. In addition to that, we demand to return of revoked scholarships to the students. We want our education rights to be preserved, so we must be treated equally, along with the rest of the students. Most importantly, we demand an official apology from everyone behind this expulsion, along with removing our names once and for all from the Higher Education Board black list, in order for us to resume our education in any other institutions we desire. We need guarantees that they will not expel us again in the same shameful manner, at any time they please, because our futures are not matters to be tampered with. Much is on the line for us as young students.
Thank you for all your efforts and I am looking forward to your reply.
Kind regards,
Eman Oun
Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 10:23 PM
