Manama: Bahrain bade farewell on Saturday to one of its pioneer communists and a great patriot, Ahmad Dhawadi (known as Saif Bin Ali), who was buried in a land he dedicated his life to, newspapers wrote yesterday.
Dhawadi, who was born in 1938 in Manama, fought for an independent and democratic Bahrain without regretting for one second the price he paid for his goals, including physical and psychological torture and 35 years of exile.
"Some Arab countries welcomed him with open arms such as Egypt and others refused to even have him as transit passenger," Al Ayam wrote.
He was one of the first victims of the State Security Law (Anti-human rights law that was cancelled in the democratic era of the kingdom).
Bahrainis lost what many look at as a great man who was the founder of the first political group in Bahrain to fight British colonialism.
Many Bahrainis believe Dhawadi enriched the political movement in Bahrain even when he was in exile in Asian and African countries and later in Latin America.
He was one of the founders of the Al Manber Democratic Society as a continuation to his pre-independence political group (Bahrain National Liberation Party) and the National Democratic Action Society.
Return from exile
With the advent of Bahrain's political reforms and King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa's call for Bahraini politicians to come back from exile, Dhawadi came to Bahrain in 2001 to start a new era of political activities in a democratic country.
Dhawadi supported the reforms and fought those who were against the king's democratic projects.
Dhawadi's life-long sufferings in prisons and exile were aimed at fulfilling his dream for a better future for the younger generations.
His skills in political analysis were known to his allies, as even in exile, Dhawadi was closely monitoring the situation in Bahrain and the Arab world, newspapers noted.
In the eighties, he married Bahraini poet Hamda Khamees and had a daughter Reem and a son Qais.
In 1994, he was diagnosed with colon cancer and in the last years of his life he underwent many operations, but the illness got the better of the fighter.
