Ala'a Shehabi | |
|---|---|
| Born | United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | Imperial College London |
| Children | 1 |
| Father | Saeed al-Shehabi |
Ala'a Shehabi, sometimes referred to as Ala'a al-Shehabi (born 1980/1981), is a British-born Bahraini journalist and democracy-rights activist. [1]
Shehabi was raised in London by her father, political exile Saeed al-Shehabi, leader of the Bahrain Freedom Movement. [2] [3] [4]
Shehabi received a PhD from Imperial College London. [5]
In 2009, Shehabi moved to Bahrain, where she worked as a lecturer in economics at a private Bahraini university. [2]
Shehabi took part in the 2011 Bahraini Uprising, helping to run a media centre, covering the events and attending protests at Pearl Roundabout. [2] [5] [6] [4] Shortly afterward, her husband was arrested for political reasons, and she was dismissed from her job, being told she was "a risk" to the university. Without a job, she began working as a political activist. [7] She founded Bahrain Watch, which advocates for press freedom in the country. [7] [8]
In April 2012, Shehabi was arrested during the Formula One Grand Prix in Bahrain, although she was later released. [5] She has reported that following her release, she was sent multiple emails and messages with spyware, which she presumed were sent by the Bahraini government. [5]
In 2015 she was an editor, along with Marc Owen Jones, on Bahrain's Uprising: Resistance and Repression in the Gulf, an anthology about Bahraini resistance in the early 2010s. [9]
Shehabi has published research through the RAND Corporation on healthcare in the United Kingdom. [10] Shehabi has written for Al Jazeera [11] and The Guardian . [12]
Shehabi is a lecturer in Middle Eastern Politics at University College London. [6] [13]
Shehabi married her husband, Ghazi Farhan, a businessman, after she moved to Bahrain in 2009. [2] Farhan was arrested by Bahraini security forces in April 2011 and sentenced to three years in prison, although he was released after ten months. [1] [2] [4] [7] Outside groups such as Human Rights Watch have speculated his arrest was due to Shehabi's political activities. [4]