Date of Award
1-1-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in History
First Advisor
Vivian Ibrahim
Second Advisor
Zachary Kagan Guthrie
Third Advisor
Emily Fransee
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
In 1934, Bahraini petitioners wrote to the Ruler of Bahrain to demand protection for the rights of individuals. The petition was not the first, nor was it the last, to demand rights in Bahrain during the interwar period. This study examines petitioning and claim-making in protectorate Bahrain. A close reading of petitions submitted by different Bahrain communities from 1919 to 1939 demonstrates Bahrain was shaped by multiple competing and cooperating priorities. This study identifies three stages of petitioning in the interwar period: petitioning for protection, petition for rights, and nationalist petitioning. Using a framework of jurisdictional ambiguity, the dissertation shows how indigenous communities leveraged different identities and used jurisdictional ambiguity to achieve goals and advance their interests through the submission of the petition.
Petitions are a window into how communities claimed rights within the state. Petitioning was a means for expression and claim-making in interwar Bahrain as different groups across the island agitated for rights, reforms, and political change. Petitions and the assertions over rights illuminate early ideas about being a citizen outside of the restrictive understandings of legal documentation as citizenship. I distinguish the latter as being composed of legal documents, whereas the former is suggestive of rights and obligations. I argue the idea of what it meant to be “citizen” in interwar Bahraini was a product of negotiation and discourse, informed by multiple competing and cooperating ideas.
Recommended Citation
Williams, Ashleen, "Oh Men of Justice! Petitioning in Protectorate Bahrain 1919-1939" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2597.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/2597