Deaf Bahraini

Deaf Bahrainis are the people who use Bahraini Sign Language and take part in Deaf life, about 2,100 people, most of them citizens: a small, close-knit community that crosses the country's Shia-Sunni divide. Bahraini Sign Language developed in the country's deaf education settings, above all the Shaikhan Al-Farsi Centre for Total Communication, and belongs to the Gulf branch of the Arab sign-language family, sharing the Arabic manual alphabet and much vocabulary with neighbouring Gulf sign languages while remaining a community language of its own. Deaf people call themselves al-summ (the deaf); the older Arabic label al-summ wal-bukm ('deaf and dumb') persists in some media. The Bahrain Deaf Society was founded on 7 June 2007 by 50 people, half of them deaf, under Mahdi Al-Nuaimi, and has about 280 members; the Bahrain Deaf Sports Federation followed in 2019. Bahrainis who lose their hearing later in life and keep using spoken Arabic belong to their own peoples, and deaf migrant workers, who sign their home countries' languages, are not part of this community.

Community life revolves around the Bahrain Deaf Society: Ramadan and Eid gatherings, National Day events such as cooking competitions, the Arab Deaf Week each April and the International Day of the Deaf in September, outings and sports through the Deaf Sports Federation. Deaf Bahrainis live within extended families, where hereditary deafness linked to cousin marriage is common across the Gulf. Smartphones, WhatsApp video and Instagram have become the main channels of deaf social life and news.

Deaf Bahrainis share their families' Islam, Shia or Sunni. Religious life in Bahrain is oral: Friday sermons, Shia ma'tam (husayniyya) gatherings and Ashura recitations are rarely interpreted, so many deaf people have limited religious instruction and learn practice by imitation and from relatives. There is no sign-language religious teaching within the Shia marja' system, and Sunni sign-language Islamic content mostly comes from Saudi and Gulf online channels.

No Scripture, Jesus Film or other Christian media exist in Bahraini Sign Language, and no deaf ministry or deaf believers are known. Resources in other Arab sign languages and written Arabic are the nearest materials. The group is unengaged.