From Diwaniyyat to Youth Societies: Informal Political Spaces and Contentious Politics in Bahrain and Kuwait.

This thesis investigates the relationship between regime and everyday dynamics of sectarianism, comparing the two Arab Gulf countries of Kuwait and Bahrain. Both case studies are viewed through the central theme of an “informal civil society” and its subsequent impact on sectarian politics in both countries. In Bahrain, the state has forwarded a sectarian narrative of the post-2011 conflict while at the grassroots level, concerted efforts have been made to bridge relations between Sunni and Shia Muslims. In Kuwait, meanwhile, there are indications of a reverse trajectory coming to fruition; while the regime denies a sectarian image of the state, posing as a neutral arbitrator between various political blocs, at the communal level, people across the political and social spectrum are defining themselves through the lens of sectarian identities that have become increasingly salient across several platforms. What is discernable in both countries is the complex and dynamic nature of sectarianism at work, where it is at one and the same time amplified and negated.