Summary: In the early 1990s, a young American man worked as a ghostwriter for a member of the royal family of Bahrain. Now, 20 years later, he's telling his story.
I'm former expatriate in Bahrain who was working for a regime backed company, I left Bahrain in 2011. Although I knew that the royal family there ruled with impunity, I believed that there were many within the palaces who wanted a fairer society. My support of them crumbled when they started shooting their own people.
Sheikh H is probably marginalised now, just as any Al Khalifa who thinks for themselves and has an inquiring mind which eventually leads them to question the moral implications of the whole affair. Just as the reforming Crown Prince's education project failed and what is left is just window dressing: education could be the undoing of the regime and it is feared by the more hardliners in the family.
Comments for Ghostwriter in Bahrain
This piece belongs to the series "With Good Reason: Weekly Half Hour Long Episodes"
Produced by [redacted] [redacted], Elliot Majerczyk, and Kelley Libby
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Miranda Diboll
Posted on October 16, 2012 at 05:22 AM | Permalink
A thoughtless regime rather than an evil regime?
I'm former expatriate in Bahrain who was working for a regime backed company, I left Bahrain in 2011. Although I knew that the royal family there ruled with impunity, I believed that there were many within the palaces who wanted a fairer society. My support of them crumbled when they started shooting their own people.
Sheikh H is probably marginalised now, just as any Al Khalifa who thinks for themselves and has an inquiring mind which eventually leads them to question the moral implications of the whole affair. Just as the reforming Crown Prince's education project failed and what is left is just window dressing: education could be the undoing of the regime and it is feared by the more hardliners in the family.
Insightful piece, thank you.