Mohamed Jawad Hameed

Mohamed Jawad Hameed is a Bahraini musician, singer and human-rights and environmental activist. As part of his artistic practice, Jawad has breathed life into the ‘Delmonian Lyre’, which he maintains is the oldest musical string instrument known to humankind. Following 4000 years of absence from musical performance, Jawad has had the Lyre rebuilt and performed with it at venues around the Middle East.

As a resident of Ma’ameer, a village in the Kingdom of Bahrain that is surrounded by over 130 polluting factories, industrial workshops, petroleum and petrochemical plants, Jawad, as he likes to be known, became aware of environmental damage at an early age. Throughout his career, he has been engaged in drawing attention to environmental and human rights abuses in his country and region. He has been persecuted for his activism, but this has not deterred Jawad who is resolute in his demands for clean air and a healthy environment, and an end to discrimination in Bahrain.

Mohamed Jawad Hameed is an Artist and Ecologist at Risk (AR) Resident currently staying at HIAP Suomenlinna. The Artists-at-Risk Safe Haven Helsinki project is curated by Perpetuum Mobile (PM) and co-organized by PM and HIAP. Safe Haven Helsinki is funded by the Division of Culture and Leisure of the City of Helsinki. Jawad’s residency program in Helsinki is being coordinated by PM in partnership with the Finnish Music Council and the Finnish Musicians’ Union.