Ali Hussain Ahmed

Ali Hussain Ahmed is from Samaheej.

I had never heard of that town before yesterday. But yesterday, a tweet went past about Ali being detained and beaten. I would cringe and move on, except that he was 13 years old.

Thirteen.

And there was a picture of him:  Ali Hussain Ahmed

To me, he doesn’t look like a big, angry, unpredictable teenager.

He looks like a child.

He looks like the sort of child that ProtestKid would run up to at the playground and ask if he wanted to play Dino Wars or cars with. He looks like the sort of child who would grin and play along, maybe teach ProtestKid some new games. He looks like someone my child will become.

And I didn’t know where Samaheej was. I didn’t know which political power I should turn my outrage towards.

Google told me: Bahrain. Vaguely aware that it was a location on a map, now I know it used to be a fishing country before they found oil there. And the government has a history of human rights abuses.

Now that doesn’t sound good, but it isn’t clear: Do they arrest protestors for not having a permit? For scaring little old ladies? What?

So I used Google again, because I wanted more information about Ali. I searched for “child arrested in Bahrain” because I expect that the internet will be able to cough up anything given sufficient search words, and how many child arrests could one tiny country have?

More than one, apparently.

You know what? One is too many.

Two is… something that makes me sick to my stomach.

This isn’t right, this isn’t good, this isn’t something that a human with control of all their faculties can condone or excuse.

My first instinct is to go pull the blankets over my head and cry.

But I’m going with my second, which is to shout.

I don’t know who will hear me, but Ali Hussain Ahmed  from Samaheej, I am mic checking for you.

Ali Hussain Ahmed from Samaheej, a town in Bahrain, is thirteen years old.

He has been arrested and beaten.

If you know how to help him, please do.

If you don’t know how to help him, please shout with me.

I don’t know the name of the child being arrested in the video I posted, but small nameless child, I am mic checking for you, too.

I have little boys. I love them.

For them, for all passionate little boys, I am mic checking for you.

Ali Hussain Ahmed, please be the last child arrested. Please be the last child hurt.

Please, let someone who can help hear my words.

Mic Check.