The Minister of State for Communications confirmed that an expatriate woman hired as an early childhood teacher has been deported for her online publications and social media activities linked to radical opposition groups, as well as violating the terms of her work permit.
The Ministry of State for Communications (MoSC) received a complaint about an individual using Twitter and a number of websites to publish articles on Bahrain that were deemed to incite hatred against the government and members of the Royal family, as well as spreading misinformation and encouraging divisions in Bahraini society based on religious sect.
The American woman, who writes under an undisclosed pen name, violated the Labor Laws of Bahrain by working illegally as an unaccredited journalist while employed as a teacher. She has published a number of articles for online journals including Muftah (where she holds the titles of Co-Editor and works as a reporter), Lebanon’s Hizbullah-linked As-Safir newspaper and the illegal Bahrain Center for Human Rights Newsletter, among others.
According to her landlord, she had a Hizbullah flag along with other paraphernalia of the Lebanese terrorist organization in her residence. This along with her social media activities led to the complaint filed with the MoSC.
“We cannot have someone teaching impressionable young children who supports an internationally recognized terrorist organization like Hizbullah,” the Principal at the school where the woman taught, in a statement said.