Jalila al-Salman

Jalila Mohammed Ridha al-Salman (born 1965) is a Bahraini teacher and vice president of the Bahrain Teachers' Association (BTA). Due to her role in the Bahraini uprising, she was arrested for 149 days, At the time of her imprisonment, she was the vice president of the Bahrain Teacher's Association (BTA). When martial law was imposed on 16 March, BTA called for another strike, this one lasting ten days. According to her family, al-Salman was tortured while in prison. She reported being verbally and physically abused by security forces who arrested her: "They hit me and called me horrible names. Names I can’t bring myself to repeat."

According to al-Salman, in the first week, she was taken to the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) in Adliya, where she was kept in solitary confinement for 10 days, forced to stand for prolonged periods, investigated in harsh conditions and forced to sign papers she was not allowed to read. She was also threatened with sexual assault. They were only allowed few visits, which were "under very strict surveillance". They had two other hearings on 22 and 29 June.

After a three-week hunger strike with another female prisoner in protest of their detention and mistreatment in prison, they were released on bail on 21 August, following a visit by a number of investigators from Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI). at which point she and Deeb were found guilty of charges of "halting the education process, promoting hatred of the regime and disseminating fabricated information". A National Security Agency detective testified that both al-Salman and Deeb "had issued statements that led to problems within Bahrain's entire education sector".

Al-Salman was sentenced to 3 years in prison. It was postponed to 19 February 2012, when it was postponed again to 2 April and then again to 2 May.

Second arrest On 18 October, al-Salman was arrested again in a pre-dawn raid. Arriving in seven vehicles, more than thirty security agents arrested her. Though they stated they were enforcing a court order, they refused to show an arrest warrant. Amnesty International condemned the circumstances of the second arrest as an intimidation attempt and stated its "renewed concerns about her safety in detention".

Responses Al-Salman and Deeb's sentences drew protest from domestic and international human rights groups. Amnesty International protested the sentences, stated that al-Salman and Deeb appeared to be prisoners of conscience, "targeted solely on account of their leadership of the BTA and peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression" and called the trials unfair. The organization called for their immediate releases. Responding to al-Salman's second arrest, Malcolm Smart of Amnesty said, "She does not present a serious flight risk but has continued to speak out about her own experiences in detention and the plight of others, leading us to fear that this is the reason for the action taken against her this morning." Human Rights Watch named al-Salman's case among Bahraini government violations of freedom of association. Education International denounced the dissolution of the BTA and the trials of its leaders in a military court, calling on the government to respect basic "human and trade union rights and freedoms of teachers". Following al-Salman's hunger strike, Front Line Defenders expressed their deep concerns for her health and called the government to release her on bail. The British teachers' union NASUWT also issued a statement in support of Abu Deeb and al-Salman, condemning their treatment as "brutal and inhumane".

The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and the Gulf Centre for Human Rights issued a joint statement that they were "deeply concerned" by the "politicised sentence", also noting that the trial of civilians by a military tribunal was a violation of Bahraini law. Al Wefaq denounced arresting al-Salman at dawn and demanded her immediate release.

Appeal On 21 September 2012, her sentence was reduced by an appeals court to six months' imprisonment.

Trade union rights award Jalila al-Salman was together with Mahdi Abu Dheeb and the union awarded the prestigious Arthur Svensson International Prize forTrade Union Rights in 2015. This prize, given by the Norwegian trade unions, is presented to a person or organisation that has worked predominately to promote trade union rights and/or strengthen trade union organizing around the world.