The 'father' of Bahrain's political opposition The Shia cleric Sheikh Abdul Amir al-Jamri led pro-democracy protest in Bahrain in the early 1990s and called for a restoration of the elected parliament that was scrapped in 1975 by the dynasty that has ruled the island state since the 18th century. Al-Jamri himself served as a member of Bahrain's first parliament in 1973, an assembly seen as a token gesture towards democracy by all-powerful emir, before the ruler suspended the constitution and dissolved the legislature in 1975. At least 40 people died during the anti-government unrest between 1994 and 1999, which saw al-Jamri jailed twice in 1995 and 1996, when he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined equivalent of $40m. Al-Jamri was, however, released after Sheikh Hamad ascended the throne in 1999, but he remained under house arrest until early 2001. Finally when Sheikh Hamad declared Bahrain a constitutional monarchy, in 2002, and himself king, rather than emir, al-Jamri got his freedom in a new spirit of reconciliation. Bahrain, a group of 35 small islands with a population of around 750,000, was a British protectorate until independence in 1971. Al-Jamri wrote several books, including Women in Islam. Abdul Amir al-Jamri was born in the village of Bani Jamra to a devout Shia family. He died of heart and kidney failure.