Hannah Smith is active in the field of human rights, writing extensively on the indigenous Bahraini population.

Hannah Smith is a member of our advisory board and provides SALAM with expert analysis on religious freedoms and human rights.

Dr. Taha Al-Derazi is a consultant neurosurgeon, active human rights defender, and member of the Bahrain Human Rights Observatory (BHRO).

Dr. Taha Al-Derazi is a member of our advisory board and provides SALAM with expert advice on human rights violations and injuries.

“Azhar Iqbal – is a leading Legal Adviser/Lawyer at Mayfair Solicitors (London) who has completed his LLM in International Human Rights Law from Brunel University London. He is a rare find in today’s legal world, a qualified lawyer since 1999. He has experience of all areas of Immigration law especially in matters related to the Human Rights. He has built a reputation for resolving seemingly futile issues and continues to apply his expertise when handling matters related to immigration and human rights. He has also worked in a UNHCR’s (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) legal project and has vast expertise to deal with the human rights issues. His vision is to make a world a peaceful place for all people where everyone can enjoy liberty with all rights.”

Gary is a migration and human rights solicitor with over 25 years’ experience based in Manchester, UK, where his firm Latitude Law has provided specialist legal advice and support since 2007. He has a keen interest in the politics of Bahrain and has acted for many high-profile refugees from the country. When visiting Bahrain in connection with asylum proceedings in 2014 he met with and interviewed several human rights defenders and their families.

Dr. Staci Strobl is Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and a Sectarian, Proxies, and Desectarinisation Center (SEPAD) Fellow. Her research focuses on comparative criminal justice in the Middle East, and in particular the Arabian Gulf. She explores issues of policing as it intersects with gender, ethnicity, and religious identity. She has published several impactful peer-reviewed articles in this domain. Dr. Strobl is the author of Sectarian Order in Bahrain: The Social and Colonial Origins of Criminal Justice (Lexington Books, 2018). In 2009, she won the Radzinowicz Memorial Prize for her article in the British Journal of Criminology about the criminalization of female domestic workers in Bahrain.

Sayed Yusuf Almuhafdha is a Bahraini human rights activist and a German citizen and researcher with more than 15 years of experience in advocacy, documentation, and Human rights engagement. From 2007 to 2012, he led documentation efforts at the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) before serving as its Acting Head until 2016. He later became Vice President of Salam for Democracy and Human Rights (2016–2021), focusing on advocacy in Europe, where he organized international conferences and events highlighting human rights violations in Bahrain. Beyond advocacy, Almuhafdha has trained activists on UPR, documentation, and human rights principles and drafted several human rights repotrs on Bahrain. Based in Germany, he also supports refugee initiatives and leads a project empowering migrant women in Berlin. He holds a Master’s degree in Human Rights from Central European University and is currently a Bahrain researcher with HUMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement

Jawad Fairooz is the chairman and one of the founders of SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights. Jawad Fairooz is a human rights defender and advocate of democratic change and reform, and actively seeks reprieve for human rights victims.

Jawad Fairooz was himself a victim of human rights abuse during his arrest after the events of the 2011 Bahraini popular uprising.

Jawad Fairooz also served as a Bahraini Member of Parliament, from 2006 to 2011, chairing the public utilities and the environment committee, and a councillor in the Northern Municipality Council from 2002 to 2006.

In addition, Jawad Fairooz received his Bachelor in Science degree from the University of Texas.

He is currently based in the United Kingdom.

Drewery Dyke is the International Partnerships Contact Point at SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights Drewery is a former Researcher at Amnesty International’s (AI) International Secretariat. Between 1999-2017 he worked, at different times, on Afghanistan, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Upon leaving AI, Drewery co-founded the UK-registered charity, Rights Realization Centre, a human rights education and awareness initiative, at which he is the current Chairperson. With Jawad Fairooz, he is likewise a co-founder and steering committee member of Hawiati, the Middle East and North Africa-focused umbrella research and advocacy body relating to statelessness. Between 2017-2019 he worked with the Saudi Arabia-focused ALQST and in 2020 authored the Ceasefire / Minority Rights Group report “In the Name of Security – Human rights violations under Iran’s national security laws”. He works on international accountability mechanisms with Justice for Iran. Earlier in his career, he worked on women’

Mohamed worked in the follow-up and documentation team at Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) from 2008 to 2017. He was an active member in the popular uprising in February of 2011 where he got arrested in the time at by a group of armed civilians accompanied by official state security forces after raiding his house.
Mohammed was subject to torture during interrogations. During his time in detention at the country’s emergency state known by the “National Safety” he witnessed the torture and killing of blogger Zakaria al-Ashiri in the Dry Dock Prison.
After 4 months, Mohammed was released and he continued his activism. Bahrain government launched at the time a mass campaign to target human rights activists, and that was the time when Mohamed flee to France to seek refuge.

Ebtisam Alsaaegh is a networking officer at SALAM, documenting violations and preparing and drafting reports and summaries.

Ebtisam Alsaaegh is a passionate human rights defender and civil activist, and also a member of the umbrella human rights organisation, Bahrain Human Rights Observatory (BHRO).

She is based in Bahrain.

Najah Yousuf is a Monitoring and Documentation Officer at SALAM, documenting violations and preparing and drafting reports and summaries in Bahrain.
Najah is a passionate human rights defender and victim of torture and former prisoner of conscience. She is based in Bahrain.