Page 158 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

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Illegal Entries. Only 28 Persians and one Iraqi were arrested and repatriated for attempt­
ing to enter Bahrain without proper travel documents or passports. Most of these people came
from Qatar. This number docs not indicate a decrease in the number of people who enter
Bahrain illegally as many persons were sent back to the places from whence they came without
resort to courts. The Nakhudas who habitually smuggle people into Bahrain arc usually
Qatar subjects. It is their practice to land their passengers on the shore and to sail immediately
to avoid capture.

A Kuwaiti Nakhudas was prosecuted for landing Persians in Bahrain without passports
or travel papers ; he was sentenced to six months imprisonment.
A Muscati brought two prostitutes who he pretended were his wives—all three were returned
to Muscat.
Haj Abdulla Daraj. Haj Abdulla Daraj, the Head Natur of the Department, died in
hospital at the age of 70. At one time he held the post of Amir of the Muharraq Naturs and
when the Government established the Passport Department in 1347 (1928), he was appointed
as Head Natur. He rendered very faithful service during the many years that he worked for
the Government.

SUNNI—SHIA DISTURBANCES AND STRIKES

Throughout the year 1372 (October 1952—September 1953) there was trouble between the
Sunnis and Shias in Manama about representation on the Manama Municipal Council and the
division of the town into wards for the purpose of Municipal elections. The Government’s
attitude was that Sunnis and Shias should be represented more or less equally on the Council
as the population was approximately half Sunni and half Shia. Half of the members of the
Council are elected and half nominated by the Government and when nominating members
the Government has always chosen an equal number of each sect. The Sunnis objected to
equal nominations on the ground that they were the most important commercial and financial
element in the town and, indeed, in the country. The Shia members resigned and the Municip­
ality was dealt with by a temporary committee of Sunnis as was described in the Bahrain
Government Annual Report for 1372.
The Municipal dispute was confined mostly to Manama. It served, however, to bring to
light certain grievances which the Shias claimed that they were suffering. They had complaints
about market conditions, relations between Sunni landlords and Shia tenants, and there was
criticism of the Courts in which all the magistrates, except the Shia Shara Kadhis, were Sunnis—
members of the Ruling Family. The spokesmen of the Shias were a small group, all from
Manama, some of whom in the past had been prominent in political activities, at times directed
against the Government.
Muharram Incident.
During the first ten days of Muharram the Shias in towns and villages assemble at night in
their “Matams” to hear sermons which are delivered by religious preachers from Bahrain and
from abroad. The Matams are large halls, resembling mosques, supported by religious
endowments. The sermons, which follow a regular course, describe in harrowing detail the
death of Husain and the afflictions of his family and followers at the battle of Kerbala in 661 a.d.
The preachers arc eloquent and stir their audiences into a state of religious excitement. The
sermons and the subsequent processions have for a motif the killing of Husain by the early
Sunnis.
On the nights of 8th and 9th of Muharram, after the sermons, the crowds of men from the
Matams pour out into the narrow streets of the Shia districts and form into processions, each
Matam having its own procession. The women from their Matems line the streets and assemble
on the house-tops. The men in the procession beat their chests, flagellate their backs with
chains and on 10th Muharram, during the day procession, numbers of them cut open their
foreheads with swords. It is a peiiod of great religious fervour, but although in the past there
have been minor clashes between rival processions from different Matams, for thirty years no
disturbances have taken place at this time.

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