Ibrahim Sharif al-Sayed is an opposition political activist in Bahrain, currently serving as the General Secretary of the secular socialist National Democratic Action Society (Wa'ad). He succeeded former General Secretary Abdulrahman al-Nuaimi, who fell into a coma in April 2007 and died in 2011. Sharif was formerly associated with the underground Arab nationalist and Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Bahrain. Sharif is a Sunni Muslim.

The 2011 Bahraini uprising was a series of anti-government protests in Bahrain led by the Shia-dominant and some Sunni minority Bahraini opposition from 2011 until 2014. The protests were inspired by the unrest of the 2011 Arab Spring and protests in Tunisia and Egypt and escalated to daily clashes after the Bahraini government repressed the revolt with the support of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Peninsula Shield Force. The Bahraini protests were a series of demonstrations, amounting to a sustained campaign of non-violent civil disobedience and some violent resistance in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain. As part of the revolutionary wave of protests in the Middle East and North Africa following the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, the Bahraini protests were initially aimed at achieving greater political freedom and equality for the 70% Shia population.