Organisations and individuals disrespecting Arabic language or go easy on its grammatical commands could be fined with up to BD1000, according to a the proposal.

Tabled by five members from the upper house, the proposal aims to protect the language. It obliges government and private organisations, banks, trade unions and NGOs to take up Arabic as their official language with compulsory Arabic copies of all documents, including transactions, 
agreements and contracts. The proposal comes to protect the language from the popularity of other foreign languages, especially English and force organisations to write grammatically-correct Arabic. 

The proposal also obliges organisations to translate their foreign correspondents and international agreements and contracts to Arabic.

The decision also covers trademarks, road signs and names of the organisations. Descriptions of products made in or imported to Bahrain should 
be written in Arabic. Similar proposal was submitted by the Lower House last year that only covers government 
organisations.                       

 shamada@khaleejtimes.ae