My letter to the BICI investigatior, Mr Khalid

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

The letter I wrote on facebook to the CEO of Bahrain Polytechnic

Noor Al-Derazi is an ex-student in the Bahrain polytechnic. You can check out here blog here.
This letter was posted on her facebook and blog on 12/06/11

This is a letter to the CEO of Bahrain Polytechnic

By : Noor Al-Derazi

Dear Johan Scott,

My name is Noor and until 2pm today I was a proud Bahrain Polytechnic student. You might recognize my face because I’m an active student. I won’t talk about the good things I have done to the Polytechnic because everyone knows, the staff & students. And because the polytechnic gave me so much that I can’t rap it all in this letter.

Dear Mr. Scott, I was one of the founding students, the very first batch. A student who was there before there were even printed patterns on the walls. I sat in classes hearing constructions noises in the background. I watched the whole polytechnic grow and develop. I was there since the very beginning that I was in the class whom the crown prince of Bahrain had visited while having a campus tour in the official opening ceremony. I was there when you welcomed us in the first orientation days in 2009 where you said to us: you are the new Bahrainis

Now, after being there for 6 semesters, I was the first one to get expelled from Bahrain polytechnic. And for some reason, you administration felt the need of having me leave the campus looking like a dangerous person whom the security had to escort out. I didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye to the tutors who have known me since they were first employed. I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to my group mates I was working with to submit an assignment that is due tomorrow.

Firstly, you might find the channel I’m delivering my message through as a strange one, why a letter on my facebook and not anything else? Well, my facebook was the reason why I was sent to the investigation panel at Bahrain polytechnic to begin with. As you might already know, some of my facebook posts were already printed out and were provided to the investigation panel. My face book account has high privacy sittings which mean not everyone can view my wall, only people who I accept their friend requests can view it. Therefore, whatever I was saying was purely personal opinion and was not made for public release purposes. I never expected that expressing my opinion and practicing the right of freedom of speech that Bahraini constitution grant me would send me to an investigation panel.

Secondly,  part of the main reasons why I got expelled was for my alleged participation in some unauthorized marches along with other things. I am curious to know if the investigation panel took my words seriously when I said that I didn’t participate in any marches. The reason for that as I told them is that I was not even here in Bahrain when people where marching! Would you like to know where I was? I was in the Minnesota -United States.

I have my flight tickets that shows the date of departure from Bahrain (28-1-2011), and another one that shows that my departure date from washington DC to Amsterdam was (6-3-2011). On Tuesday (7-3-2011 – in the midnight) I arrived to Bahrain, on Thursday the 9th of March 2011 I traveled to Dubai for two nights so I came back to Bahrain on Saturday the 12th of march 2011. Technically, if you calculate how much I spent in Bahrain before the Roundabout evacuation you find that I was in Bahrain for nearly a week only! that is counting the days where I faced jet lag from the 8 hours difference in time! So I wonder, what were those marches(s) (because the letter refers to me allegedly participating in several marches not only one) that I have participated in because I cannot think of any! Can you please give me an answer for that? Because apparently it was one of the key reasons I got expelled!

Thirdly, would you like to know why I was in the US at that time? Well, I was sent through the US embassy in Manama on a women’s leadership program funded by US department of state. Among 5 other Bahraini women, I was selected to participate in the program after they have viewed applications from all over Bahrain. The program name is “ the Study of the united state institute for student leaders on women’s leadership”. During our time in Minnesota and Washington DC, I have learnt so much about the US history, women’s leadership and Human rights. We even were given a copy of the Universal declaration of the human rights document. We learnt and saw how freedom of speech is granted and practiced by everyone. I connected it with what Bahrain constitution provides as well. Sadly, almost 2 months after I came back to Bahrain, I got called for investigation for practicing what I have learnt.

That experience in the US really changed me to the better. I can’t even begin to describe to you to the pride I felt representing my country abroad. I become full of honor every time I remember that. We were talking about how civilized Bahrain is, how great its people are and how lucky we are to be Bahrainis. That of course hasn’t change and will never change.

Finally, I want to tell you that I’m not sad or bitter because of this. And I defiantly didn’t write this letter begging to be a Bahrain polytechnic student again. I said what I have said in this letter simply because I have the right to do so.

Thank you very much for everything..

Noor Al-Derazi

12/6/2011