There is something about the traditional burial rituals that really gets to me, with another death in the family, someone I wasn’t close to, can’t relate to in anyway. I knew how the rest of my day is going to end up like as soon as I heard the dreadful news early that morning.

There is something that kept pushing me to the edge of the grave, right in line with his close family members and stand there, zoned out of my surroundings, looking no where but towards the grave itself, knowing that this is my family’s side of the graveyard; not so far away lays my grandfather, my grandma, my cousins, all around me. I took a long look to the area as I walked out; it’ll only be a short while before I myself join them, right here on this spot, not so far away from where I stand right now.

One thing that grabbed my attention on my way out, it wasn’t just the thought of death that like a 5 year old kid I still can’t relate to. A grave of a martyr, it was took me a little over a split second for the entire thing to sink within me, “Here lays the jovial martyr Fadhel Abbas Marhoon, killed on the 5th of May 1996″ that was what it said on his gravestone, an old lady sat right on the edge of the grave reciting Quran and scattering rose water all around it.

He was 21 years of age when three bullets found their way through his body, later buried with the presence of only riot control officers and security guards, without any family members to even identify his body or attend the burial.

This isn’t really a talk in local politics, but an epidemic that still lives on today, the victims are very well alive and present, many of whom have not committed any offence but claiming for a life dignity and respect. This is but one story of nation that is filled with tales of sacrifices and courage by decent Bahraini families that lost a loved one; other’s whose members faced torture and imprisonment for long years or those that were forcefully thrown out of the country that they called home.

The grave stood a witness to an era of injustice and tyranny, a reminder of the days of “State Security Law” and its crooked court, other martyrs were laid to rest not so far away. Heroes of this little land that gave their lives to what they believed in, youngsters that gave their future for this nation, unlike us all they didn’t choose to shyly burry our heads in the sand, but spilt their blood as ink to a long unforgettable novel of sacrifice and call for a country of equality and justice.

“The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins”

Soren Kierkegaard – Danish Philosopher