Fired for Protesting, Bahraini Shi’ites Rally to Demand Jobs Back

In the wake of last year’s failed Arab Spring revolution in Bahrain, many of the most visibly involved Shi’ite demonstrators found themselves fired or placed on “permanent suspension” from their jobs for political dissent, and a number of students were expelled or forced to sign loyalty oaths to the king.

Today a number of Shi’ite demonstrators took to the streets of villages in Bahrain demanding to be rehired, and condemning the growing number of Pakistani police brought in by the monarchy to crush dissent.

Naturally, no one was rehired because of the latest protests, and a number of the people involved were arrested, with the Interior Ministry terming it an “illegal rally” and warning people not to continue taking to the streets.

Shi’ites are a majority in Bahrain, but the nation’s royal family in Sunni. The monarchy crushed the initial revolution, which saw double digit percentages of the population in the streets at any given time, with the help of a Saudi invasion force. Since then the Shi’ites involved, already second-class citizens, have found themselves virtual pariahs, accused, for demanding free elections, of being part of an “Iranian plot” to conduct regime change.