My Parents' Bahrain A Successful Argumentation

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Cherif Youssef Chokeir

RHET1010-03
UID: 900140712
Professor Maha Hassan
Draft 3- 19th October 2014
My Parents Bahrain: a successful argumentation
My task, which I am trying to achieve, is, by the power of the
written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to
make you see. Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim. Throughout the ages, many
philosophers and thinkers talked about the power of the word which
could be stronger than a sword. Therefore, this weapon was used by
many people to criticize the human defects and abuses. Many human
rights activists used the magic of words to criticize political regimes.
For example, Jaddalyia, which means dialectic in Arabic, is an e-zine
(online magazine) in Arabic, English and French that is interested in
Arabic and Middle-east studies and is well-known for serving Human
rights conditions; it had some impact on the Arab Spring. Maryam AlKhawaja, a Bahraini human rights defender, the acting president of the
Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) wrote an article on Bahrain
and its conditions, named My parents Bahrain which appeared in
Jaddalyia on 12th August 2013 two days before the start of many
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protest organized by Bahrainis against the Al-Khalifas regime in the

frame of Bahraini Tamarrod (rebellion). In this article, she presented a
contrast between old beautiful Bahrain and actual Bahrain which is,
according to her, full of corruption. In this essay, I will try to present a
rhetorical analysis of the article, showing that Al Khawajas article was
effective and persuasive as she tried to convince us by reason using
the logos appeal, as she intended to persuade us by her credibility
(ethos appeal) and as she grabbed our attention by using emotions
and sensations very usually in her article. This combination of the
three rhetorical appeals was very effective and helped to convince her
readers of her point of view and to give an alarming message to the
people and call for action.
In this article, Al Khawaja succeeded to convince us about her
critics of the regimes abuses, corruption, land reclamation and bad
treatment for Bahrainis by using many logical facts and reasonable
evidences which depend on our mind. At first, we can find many visual
evidences (photos and 3D model) of the regime abuses. For example,
trying to criticize the regime, Al Khawaja told us about the absence of
infrastructures in many places in Bahrain Unpaved roads are
prevalent in those residential areas, where the absence of a sewage
system left those areas flooded when it rained. And to convince us of
this absence of basic infrastructures in many Bahraini places, Al
Khawaja put the images of the flooding village and rundown homes. In
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a similar way, when she was trying to criticize the land reclamation by
the regime, she convinced us by showing us visual evidence: the 3D model of a
reclaimed island. These visual evidences (photos and 3D models) have the purpose of
convincing the reader directly, as when he sees these visual evidences, he would better
understand what the writer meant and believe her. At second, in order to persuade us by
the mind, using the logos appeal, the writer mentioned many statistics when she
mentioned for example that when it comes to Bahrain: ninety-seven percent of its
shoreline is privately owned. The remaining three percent open to the public is
undeveloped and usually very dirty. These statistics make it clear for the reader; the
contrast is very grabbing (97% against 3%) which convince the reader by reason. At
third, Al Khawaja placed about 30 hyperlinks in this article so that the reader could easily
check these facts: this has for effect to give evidence to the reader of what she said and
therefore convince the reader by the logos appeal. When we consider all of these
reasonable evidences, we would find that Al Khawajas article was persuasive to the
readers mind using the logos appeal.
However, these evidences couldnt be applied to the image of ancient Bahrain as the
writer was only hearing stories about it from her parents. Therefore, Al Khawaja
needed to convince us of her credibility by using the ethos appeal. At first, she showed us
that she is a typical human rights defender, daughter of activist parents. who fought for
the Bahraini human rights and taught her that having a conscience is what makes you
human, and that the greatest achievement in life is helping others. These images of the
human rights defender and that she was born to activist parents improves her credibility
to the reader who could now believe and trust her. The fact that she is involved in the
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human rights activities, that she grew up knowing Bahraini culture and that she is well
educated Fulbright Teaching Assistant program in the United States shows that she is
experienced in this topic and therefore makes her critics to the regime more credible and
they could be more easy to believe. At second, to raise her credibility to the reader and
convince him, Al Khawaja tried to show us she is unbiased as she mentioned the true
things prince Hamad did: she spoke about his release of political prisoners: He allowed
the release of political prisoners and the return of those in exile, but the rest were nothing
but empty promises. This has for effect of showing that the writer is fair and mentions
also the good thing the regime made; thats why we should think that she is unbiased and
therefore trust her and believe her. When we combine her status of human rights
defender, her experience in this topic, her trial to appear as an unbiased person, we would
easily find that Al Khawaja succeeded of convincing us of her credibility, using the ethos
appeal.
However, the writer also used in this article lots of emotions (pathos) in order to
persuade us of her critics to the regime. At first, Al Khawaja mentioned many strong
words while speaking about her family like prayer mat, father crying, tears rolling
down her cheeks after speaking to family members, My grandmothers last wish had
been to see her youngest daughter. These strong words have for effect to grab the
readers attention, to make him feel sorry and sympathy for her. This helps to persuade
the reader. At second, trying to criticize the regime, the writer showed us an image of
ancient Bahrain using here also many passionate words like paradise, million palm
trees, of natural freshwater springs like Ain Athari, and a burning sun., and the photos of
what ancient Bahrain would look like (fishing boats). These words and images affect
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strongly the reader who feels nostalgia and emotions on ancient Bahrain places they
grew up in. I could see the look of love in their eyes. This use of emotions in the text
arouses the national sentiment in Bahraini readers of the article and makes them want to
get back to this lovely ancient Bahrain, their Parents Bahrain and therefore make them
hate the regime that changed it. When we think of these strong emotional words about
ancient Bahrain and the writers family, we would find that Al Khawaja succeeded to use
the pathos appeal to convince her readers.
To sum up, this is an article that was written by a Bahraini human rights activist. In order
to convince her readers, she used the power of words by making a contrast between old
and actual Bahrain, in order to criticize the regime and give a warning to Bahrainis so
that they face it, trying to save their country. To make this, the writer used many data and
information (logos), based on her own personality (ethos), but also aroused emotion
among the readers (pathos). All these rhetorical appeals and strategies made her article a
convincing one. However, we remarked that she used some of the rhetorical appeals more
than others: the pathos was more wide spread than logos. We can ask ourselves if this is a
good strategy. More generally, many debates existed between rhetorical professors about
the effectiveness of each one of the three appeals: should we lie on a specific one of them
in a specific context or would it be better to always combine the three no matter is our
audience?
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Works Cited
Al Khawaja, Maryam. My Parents Bahrain. Jaddalyia 12 Aug 2013
Jaddalyia. en.wikipedia.org, n.d. web 30 Sep 2014
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jadaliyya>
Maryam_al-Khawaja, ar.wikipedia.org, n.d. web 28 Jul 2014
<http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%8A
%D9%85_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AC
%D8%A9>
Quotes about the power of words, goodreads.com
<http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/power-of-words>

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What strategies does Maryam Al-Khawaja use to make her article persuasive?

How does Al-Khawaja use logos, ethos and pathos in her article?

Chokeir1

Cherif Youssef Chokeir

protest organized by Bahrainis against the Al-Khalifas regime in the

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