Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei is a human rights defender from Bahrain and the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD).

‘All we are asking for are the most basic rights. We hope to see Bahrain healing from over a decade of ordeal, of repression, of imprisonment, of torture, into a State where individuals can challenge their State without fear.’

He spoke to ISHR about how the 2011 Arab Spring uprising in Bahrain led him into activism and shared his hopes for a free, democratic future for his country despite the regime’s efforts to silence him and all those it perceives as opponents.

Learn more about Sayed and other human rights defenders like him here: https://ishr.ch/defender-stories/

This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.