Posted by Noor Al-Derazi, an ex student in Bahrain polytechnic on her blog on 29/8/11
Dear Khalid M Ahmed, Head of (Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry) investigators,
My name is Noor and I am one of Bahrain Polytechnic expelled students. I am positive that you will not remember me because you apologized several times during the very short 8 minutes I sat speaking to you and asked me: what’s your name again? I came to your committee a couple of weeks ago to document my case, and I have been told that I might only have 30 minutes to speak. I thought that 30 minutes would not be enough, but I did not know that I would only have a fraction of that time to speak about my case even though I came with an appointment.
Well, I am not here to talk about the way our conversation went or the time it took. I am mostly concerned about its content. You begun by taking my personal and contact information and then asked me a couple of questions like everyone else in the room. When you knew that I was there for an expelled student case, you told me that you’re meeting the people related to our case soon to see if there is a way to solve it. I told you that we were wronged by the expulsion, so the common sense would be returning us back! I also said that returning us is only the start of getting back our right because many of us were offended too. You seemed shocked and almost laughed when you said to me after that: “so are you expecting an official apology?! Because that will never happen!”.
Well, what can I say? You were right. Not only we didn’t get any sort of emotional compensation, but we got another official offense as far as I see it. I was highly offended by the official release that returning back students was announced in few days ago. And what I have expected and told you will happen did actually happen. I told you that I don’t want to be returned as a student who did something wrong and then was “forgiven”, because as a student, I didn’t do anything wrong. I also told you if we were “forgiven” then it would mean having less advantages in the polytechnic as students, especially that all what had happen would probably remain in my university records which was once a clean one! In addition to that I asked you, if we were “forgiven” what is there to guarantee that this “forgiveness” would not be taken back at anytime and the next thing we know is us getting expelled again? Some would say: compliance with the polytechnic’s rules would guarantee that. Well, apparently that did not help much in the first time!
You told me that there is nothing much that can be done regarding that now, and asked me to come again to document if that happens. Now I wonder what if that happens right after you leave, would you still look at the case once your job here is over? I certainly hope so, but I don’t think that is possible. Now you might ask, what do you want exactly? Why are you saying all of that? The answer is simple, I want my right back. It has been said that only the students who have been allowed back will be contacted. This means that not everyone will be returned as I understood. If I was returned, I hope I get an official letter for that at least and not a phone call like the one I got for the investigation. Also, I want to know what will happen regarding the semester that we were few weeks away from completing; do we have to start it all over again? And what about our university records, will they be cleaned? Whether I go back to polytechnic or not after being allowed back in again is a choice that is left for me to make. But even if I chose not to go back to the polytechnic again, it doesn’t change the fact that I still want to get my right back.
Now I do not know if I am among the people who will be returned or not, but I certainly hope that this letter does not magically become a reason that prevents me from being returned.
Thank you for everything..
Kind regards,
Noor
29-8-2011
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