Bahrain: Huda - a reflection of Bahrain's tolerant culture

Her face is an arresting image in determination and aspiration these days in Bahrain. It is a soft but determined look primed to prove that the alleged clash between cultures does not really exist and that the war of religious ideas is merely a myth.

Huda Ezra Nonoo, the woman tipped to be her country's next ambassador to Washington and to become the first Jewish envoy of an Arab state to the US, is on a mission to offset the concept that Jews in Arab countries are less patriotic and dedicated to their country's ideals than their fellow nationals.

Huda, a mother of two teenage boys, is undoubtedly Bahrain's most featured face in the media today, and even long after the fanfare about her nomination as her country's top diplomat in Washington subdues, she will always be recalled for making history. Again.

Because Huda is not a history-making novice.

In 2004, she became the first minority woman to head a human rights society and in 2006 she was the first Jewish female lawmaker to sit in the upper house. Two positions that shed the spotlight on the quiet woman born 43 years ago to a Bahraini family devoted to business and financial activities. She herself was destined to perpetuate the family tradition after she studied business in Britain and opened a shop in one of Manama's busiest avenues selling computers and computer accessories.

But now her inexorably stratospheric public ascent since 2004 seems to have put her business vocation on hold in favour of diplomacy.

The perspective fascinates her.

Only two women in Bahrain have had the outstanding distinction of heading diplomatic missions, Shaikha Haya Bint Rashid Al Khalifa in France and Bibi Al Alawi currently in China. No Jew or Christian was ever appointed as ambassador, although a Christian woman, Alice Samaan, is one of the two vice presidents of the upper house in the bicameral parliament.

Around 40 Jews today live in Bahrain. Decades ago, there were hundreds of them but many emigrated for various reasons.

"There was a Jewish community in Bahrain of between 300 and 400 persons who lived in Manama ... They were quiet, law-abiding, timorous people...," wrote Charles Belgrave, the British advisor to the rulers of Bahrain from 1926 until 1957, in his book Personal Column.

One of the first Jews to settle in Bahrain was Saleh Eliyahou Yadgar, coming from Basra in the late 1880s. "He began as a tobacconist and later sold flour. He then started dealing with second-hand clothes and also commenced in the material trade supplied from abroad, mainly dealing in the sale of abayas, the long black dress covering worn by Gulf women," writes Nancy Elly Khedouri, a Bahraini Jew in her book From Our Beginning to Present Day.

He and the other Baghdadi Jews who arrived in Bahrain in the early 1990s settled in with ease and some of them became involved in political life.

"Issac Sweiry, Meir Dahoud Rouben and Abraham Nonoo, were members of the Manama Municipality. The membership did not bring about any hatred or problems," Nancy writes.

The Nonoo family history in Bahrain began with Abraham Nonoo "who left Iraq at the age of nine or ten with his uncle and came to Manama". Abraham was elected in 1934 as member of the Manama Municipality. His grandson, also Abraham, was the first Jew to be appointed to the Shura (Upper) Council in 2002 and served until 2006. The post was later assigned to his cousin, Huda Ezra Nonoo. It heralded a new chapter in her life.

Now, her historic designation as the head of the diplomatic mission in Washington is seen by most Bahrainis as a reflection of the country's tolerance towards Jews and Christians and a celebration of its kaleidoscopic blend of communities. Many also celebrate it as a new recognition of the elevated status of women in a conservative region.

Bahrainis, both common people and officials, say that Huda, who was educated at Carmel College, Oxfordshire, was selected based on her merit as a citizen and regardless of her religious beliefs. Their views are reinforced by the Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa. "She is a Bahraini citizen whose forefathers are also Bahrainis," he says.

For the minister, an eternal romantic and savvy diplomat, the fact that Bahrain had only 37 Jews out of a total native population of 530,000 and that most of them were engaged in business and financial activities did not mean that they should be overlooked for diplomatic posts.

By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief, Gulf News