The Royal Guard ( ar, الحرس الملكي) of

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

is a unit of the

Bahrain Defence Force The Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) is the military force of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Bahrain Defence Force is under direct command and leadership of a commander-in-chief who holds the rank of field marshal. The Government has a Minister of Def ...

. In June 2011,

King Hamad Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa ( ar, حمد بن عيسى بن سلمان آل خليفة '; 28 January 1950) is King of Bahrain since 14 February 2002, after ruling as Emir of Bahrain from 6 March 1999. He is the son of Isa bin Salman ...

appointed his 24-year-old son

Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa ( ar, ناصر بن حمد آل خليفة; born 8 May 1987) is a member of the Bahraini royal family, Commander of Bahrain's Royal Guard, deputy chairman of the Higher Committee for Energy and Natural Resourc ...

as the commander of the Royal Guard. Opposition political leader

Ali Salman Ali Salman Ahmed Salman ( ar, علي سلمان أحمد سلمان) is a Bahraini Twelver Shi'a cleric and the Secretary-General of the Al-Wefaq political society. In January 1995, the Bahraini government forcibly exiled him to Dubai for leadin ...

claimed in 2009 that "no

Shi'ite Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most n ...

s have been recruited to work in the Royal Guard even though they make up over half of the population."

References

See also