Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa

The current King of Bahrain .

Born on January 28, 1950 in Riffa , Bahrain. His father was Prince Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who was crown prince at the time, and his mother was Hesa ​​bint Salman al-Khalifa. After graduating from Manama High School in Bahrain, Hamad went to study abroad at Applegarth College in Godalming, England , and later continued his studies at the Reyes School at the University of Cambridge .

After completing my studies, I began full-scale military training. First, he received military training with the British Army at the Mons Military Academy located in Aldershot, Hampshire, England, and graduated in September 1968. Four years later, in June 1972, the U.S. After entering the U.S. Army Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he graduated with a leadership degree in June of the following year.

Hamad was named the official heir (crown prince) on February 27, 1964, when he was 14 years old. Later, in 1968, he entered politics, serving as chairman of the Repair Committee and Manama City Council. In the same year, on February 16, 1968, he was commissioned as an officer of the Bahrain National Guard and was simultaneously appointed as its first commander.

After serving as the first commander of the National Guard until 1969, he moved to the position of supreme commander of the Bahrain Defense Force (BDF), Bahrain 's regular army. In 1970, he rose to the position of Minister of Defense of Bahrain and Vice-Chairman of the Administrative Committee, and served as Secretary of State for Defense from 1971 to 1988, when Bahrain became completely independent from Britain.

He began learning helicopter piloting skills in October 1977 and successfully completed flight training in January 1978. Hamad set out to establish the Bahrain Air Force based on his experience in the Air Force, including helicopter piloting skills, and eventually established today's Bahrain Air Force by reorganizing the existing National Guard Air Corps into a formal air force in 1987, while the Iran -Iraq War was in full swing.

On March 6, 1999, upon the death of his father Issa, Hamad was crowned as the new Amir of Bahrain . Immediately after his accession to the throne, Hamad released all political prisoners, dissolved the notorious National Security Court, completely abolished the National Security Measures Decree enacted in 1974, and at the same time allowed the return of Bahraini citizens who had been in exile for political reasons, showing a number of quite reformative measures. Hamad focused on stabilizing the country, which had been marred by anti-government protests throughout the 1990s, and actually improved the living standards of its people, succeeding in growing Bahrain into a major financial hub in the Middle East.

Touting these reform achievements, Hamad declared himself king in 2002 and converted Bahrain into a kingdom. Amir was considered the title of leader of the traditional emirate of an Arab tribal nation, and he wanted to transform Bahrain into a modern kingdom system like Saudi Arabia or the United Kingdom and increase his authority. Thanks to this, since his accession to the throne in 1999, King Hamad has exercised absolute administrative and political power, including the right to appoint the prime minister and ministers, the right to command the military, and the position of chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, as well as the right to appoint all senators and the right to dissolve the popularly elected House of Representatives.

But between 2003 and 2010, discontent among Bahrain's Shiite community, which makes up the majority of the population, began to explode. The current Al Khalifa family (Sunni) regime's corruption is no joke, and Shia citizens are actually discriminated against in terms of housing and job security, which has led to complaints from Shia citizens. In particular, the two sides came to the brink of conflict as suspicions were revealed that the regime had hired a large number of foreigners in the military to exclude Shiites and systematically relocated Sunni tribes from Asia to change the population structure to Sunni dominance.

In fact, during King Hamad's term, some Shiite figures were appointed to high-ranking government positions, but it was difficult to say that public offices and jobs were distributed perfectly equally. Ministerial positions in key ministries such as the Ministry of Home Affairs, Justice, Finance, Ministry of Culture, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the positions of heads of major state institutions such as the Bahrain Economic Development Board and Supreme Women's Council are still dominated by the Al Khalifa royal family, and the absolute majority of senior positions in the Bahrain Defense Force, which is the core of national security, are also held by Sunnis. Considering that the Shia population in Bahrain accounts for a majority of 55-65%, this can be considered discrimination.

When his uncle, who had been Prime Minister for a long time, died at the end of 2020, he nominated his son, Crown Prince Salman, as the next Prime Minister.

In 2011, he was invited by the British royal family to Prince William 's wedding, but ultimately declined to attend. It is understood that human rights activists at the time felt burdened by the king's violent response to the bloody suppression of democracy protests in Bahrain and his announcement that they would hold large-scale protests while he was staying in the UK. After Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022 , she went to London in person on September 18. He visited Buckingham Palace , met with King Charles III and expressed condolences.

Until August 2020, King Hamad indirectly expressed his refusal to normalize relations with Israel , conveying his position to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his visit to Bahrain , saying, “Bahrain supports the creation of an independent Palestinian state.” However, just one month later, on September 11, 2020, it was announced that Bahrain and Israel had suddenly agreed to establish formal diplomatic relations after a three-way phone call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , President Donald Trump , and King Hamad. Three days later, on September 15, a representative of Bahrain attended an official signing ceremony held at the White House and signed a diplomatic agreement, formally establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

As the despot of Bahrain, he is running a fairly oppressive dictatorship. In 1990, reform protests took place in Bahrain, which turned into large-scale protests/uprisings in 1994, causing great chaos and lasting until 1999.[1]

Afterwards, when Hamad ascended to the throne, he issued an amnesty, and in the 2000s, he gradually began to gain public support by holding a referendum to reconvene parliament. Of course, it was just a justification to gain public support, and the authority to appoint military generals, bureaucrats, and lawmakers rested only with the king. Moreover, in 2002, the title was raised from the previous Emir to Malik (King), and as the authoritarian system was further strengthened, a dictatorship emerged.

However, in 2011, as large-scale fiery protests spread in the Middle East, they also appeared in Bahrain. It initially started as a peaceful protest, but a large-scale protest broke out as four citizens died due to struggles between police, soldiers, and citizens . As protests intensified toward the end of February, the king released some political prisoners and dismissed three ministers, but it was not enough to appease the people's anger.

Ultimately, the protests that took place on February 14, 2011 continued into March. King Hamad then mobilized the police and soldiers and brutally suppressed it. At this time, the Bahrain military and police fired live ammunition , massacring the citizens of Pearl Square in the capital Manama, and Pearl Square was turned into a miserable ruin. # In addition, King Hamad requested help from Sunni countries in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. In particular, when Saudi Arabia dispatched armored vehicles and 1,000 soldiers, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait also dispatched about 500 troops and police. King Hamad, with their backs, carried out even more coercive suppression measures. Perhaps wanting to eliminate traces of suppression or prevent protests, he completely destroyed the square and the Pearl Tower in the center and turned it into a stadium for racing competitions. # Of course, even after the square disappeared, citizens continued to protest there until March 2012, and after that, large and small protests occurred, but they were violently suppressed and ended in failure. After the protests were completely suppressed in 2014, Pearl Square was literally obliterated and the 'Al Farouq' building was built in 2017.[2] It was converted into an intersection and now there is no trace of it.

It was revealed that protesters were detained and subjected to severe torture.[3] Since 2014, the punishment for insulting the king has been strengthened to a maximum of 7 years in prison and a fine of 10,000 dinars (30 million won in Korean currency). #

Once the situation was over in June 2011, King Hamad launched the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), led by renowned human rights lawyer Sherif Bassioni, and tasked it with investigating the bloodshed that occurred during the uprising. President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also expressed positive expectations for this measure, but according to Amnesty International 's revelations in August 2012, the investigative committee was only a stopgap measure to avoid criticism from the international community and was at a superficial level that completely failed to solve the fundamental problem.

In addition, the Bahrain royal family, including the king, was often not well-known because the United States and Europe turned a blind eye to the king's tyranny because it was a pro- American dictatorship. As a result, advanced countries in the United States and Europe were criticized for aiding and abetting the dictator. However, like all Arab dictators, Hamad commits an oppressive dictatorship while also pursuing a secular religious policy, while also being quietly open like Kuwait , the United Arab Emirates , and Jordan . In particular, King Hamad thoroughly pursues the separation of church and state, but the pitfall is that those 'democracy protesters' do not dream of pure democracy, but of overthrowing the pro-Western Sunni secularist royal family and creating an Iranian-style anti-Western Shia theocratic dictatorship . And you can see what happened as a result of 'the United States and many European countries not turning a blind eye' by looking at Libya or Iran .[4][5]

He and his cousin, Queen Sabika, who is two years older than him, have three sons and one daughter. Because he married early , there is only a 19-year age difference between him and his eldest son, Crown Prince Salman, who was born in 1969 . As polygamy is not permitted in the Islamic world, he has three more wives, and the children he has from them are seven sons and five daughters.

Her descendants also tend to marry early, so she has already seen four great-grandchildren even though she is in her 70s. #