Arabs & Arabian Records Aggregator. Chronicler. Milestones of the 25 Countries of the Arabic Speaking World (official / co-official). AGCC. MENA. Global. Ist's to Top 10's. Records. Read & Enjoy./ www.arabianrecords.org
Music industry hopefuls, it’s time to update your calendar because Spotify is presenting its first-ever Sawtik female-only masterclass.
And Arab superstar and Godmother of Sawtik, Latifa Bint Alaya El Arfaoui, is set to host a special guest spot to share her story. The special installment, which supports the region’s emerging female artists as part of the Sawtik initiative.
The Tunisian superstar, who has partnered with the world’s most popular audio streaming service to be a mentor to exceptional up-and-coming talents from countries like UAE, KSA, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, will be offering creators valuable tips and advice.
Latifa, who started her career in the 80s, told “Vogue Arabia.” “My journey hasn’t happened without its challenges and while I enjoy a successful career, there are many others still waiting for the right opportunity to shine.”
The singer and actress added Sawtik offers female artists an effective platform to reveal their talent and build a connection with audiences who will love their music across all genres.
Sawtik, which means “your voice” in Arabic, was launched as Spotify’s inaugural women-in-music initiative for the Middle East and North Africa region. The initiative, unveiled with 16 emerging talents including Almas, Jarra and Feluka, is also backed by other influential women in the music business. Introduced the same week that Apple launched its New Artists: Middle East playlist.
Yusuf Qaafow (born June 19, 1987) is a Somali professional basketball player.
At a professional level, he played for the Melbourne Tigers and then the Brisbane Spartans from 2009 until 2017, and has since been a basketball coach running his own academy called the Hard Knockz Academy.
Abdi was born in Somalia and moved to Australia where he began playing basketball at the age of 12.
He opted to represent his country of birth, Somalia national basketball team where he was born in 1987.
As a captain of the Somalia national football team throughout the 2010s, he has served as the nations longest served team captain thus far.
Qaafow has claimed that he aims to take Somalia back to its team high of 1981 when it won the bronze medal at FIBA Africa, or its stable period in 1992 when Somalia last took part at FIBA Africa before the imminent absent spell for many years thereafter.
Samia Khaled, named best goalkeeper in Saudi Women’s League, shares dream of turning pro.
Saudi footballer Samia Khaled, who was named best goalkeeper in the inaugural Saudi Women’s League Championship, said she is proud to be part of the Al-Mamlaka side that won the title this month.
Her personal award reflects the key role she played in her team during the tournament. In the final match against Al-Tahadi, for example, she kept a clean sheet as her side cruised to a 7-0 victory.
Khaled lists Algerian goalkeeper Rais M’Bolhi, who plays for Al-Ettifaq in the Saudi Pro League, as a role model and hopes that like him, she will have the chance to represent her country.
There was special thanks for Mohammed Khalfan, who has been her trainer for several years, from futsal level up to her current position.
She also had advice for other women in the country interested in building a career in the sport: “Female Saudi players need more experience and skills, and need to build their body strength and increase speed and power.”
source/content: arabnews.com
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Saudi footballer Samia Khaled was named best goalkeeper in the inaugural Saudi Women’s League Championship. (Supplied)
Researcher Sara Hegy Ahmed was awarded for her study on sex hormone signalling, and how they can influence the regenerative capacity of intenstinal cells.
Egyptian scholar Sara Hegy Ahmed has been awarded the Rictzenhain Doctoral Prize in recognition for her achievements in cancer research in Germany.
The prize is given out every two years to researchers with exceptional dissertations in cancer research at the University of Heidelberg, or at a research institute in the town of Heidelberg.
Motivated by the loss of a young relative to cancer, Ahmed knuckled down to receive her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and biological sciences at the German University in Cairo, before completing her graduate studies in cancer research at the University of Heidelberg.
During her PhD research at the German Cancer Research Center, Ahmed studied the way sex hormones signalling can influence the regenerative capacity of intenstinal cells. According to her research, stem cells of non-sex organs can be affected by sex hormones – drawing a link between high concentrations of sex hormones and the development of tumors in the digestive system.
Ahmed currently works as a Transformational Coach, helping others achieve their own life goals.
The Sudanese artist Mubarak Hemoudi, who is 77, works in the United States, but his paintings reflect his experiences in Sudan, including scenes of violence he witnessed in his youth and the daily suffering of residents, and especially women, of Sudan’s Darfur region.
Born in Sudan’s North Kordofan state in 1944, Hemoudi moved between the country’s southern and northern regions during his youth and now divides his time between the United States and Sudan. “I get inspired by images from Khartoum and come to America to paint,” he said.
Hemoudi recently displayed a series of his paintings in Northern Virginia in an exhibition titled “African Art and Tales from Sudan.”
Through 38 images of Darfuri women—some from the Baggara tribes in western Sudan, some from the Dinka tribes in the south and other groups—the exhibition takes visitors on a time journey to the past of Sudan’s rural regions.
Art as a Call for Freedom.
His art is influenced not only by the violence he witnessed during his youth and the tyranny of tribal leaders over peoples’ lives, but also by his experience of the patterns of daily life and interactions among the residents of Sudan’s various regions.
He explained that Sudanese art exists more in the natural environment than in urban areas such as Khartoum, which was influenced by imported European cubist and abstract art movements. All regions of Sudan are saturated with African art with an Arabic touch as a result of the first Arab immigration to Sudan’s western and northern regions, he said.
The Influence of Kushite Art
Hemoudi studied fine arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Khartoum, which was established in the mid-1940s, before moving to Germany twice to study textile printing and color science. These skills later helped him improve his paintings’ aesthetics and master the use of lines.
In most of his works, Hemoudi draws on elements of Kushite art, one of the most famous types of African design and calligraphy used in drawings and decorations in many African countries.
The history of Kushite art goes back to Kush, a rich African civilization that originated in northern Sudan near the border with Egypt, nearly 5,000 years ago.
Kushite art is an art that stands on its own, Hemoudi said. “It is the origin of the existing arts and styles. It is hard to find an analogue of it in any other region,” he said. Its styles, he added, are characterized by a mix of simplicity, sophistication, and complexity.
The plastic arts in Sudan are a very old practice, according to Issam Abdel-Hafeez, a professor at the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Sudan University of Science and Technology.
“It was affected by the local scenery-rich environment, as well as the presence of Arab and African culture in its regions, which was reflected in the diversity of artists’ use of tools, such as the presence of fifty-one written languages other than Arabic,” Abdel-Hafeez said in a telephone interview.
Ibrahim al Salatni has broken the Asian record for free diving, clocking a time of nine minutes and 13 seconds. The previous record of eight minutes and 45 seconds was held by a Chinese national.
Salatni’s record was set at a tournament organised in Egypt held under the umbrella of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI).
Salatni’s success follows intensive training over five years and he now aims to be among the top ten free divers in the world.
Speaking to Muscat Daily, he said, “The event was held exclusively for me over two days on December 27 to 28 to break the previous record. I’m so happy to break the previous record. I dedicate this achievement to my country.
“It was not easy to set this record. Ever since I began free diving as a hobby in 2014, my aim was to achieve a record for Oman, and now I have achieved that goal. I am looking for even more.”
He also holds the national, Arab and continental records in static apnea – holding breath under water – of eight minutes and seven seconds, and the national and GCC record in dynamic apnea (dynamic with fins and dynamic without fins), diving 150m underwater in one breath.
Free diving is practised without the use of any breathing apparatus. “You dive holding your breath to save oxygen.”
His future plans include participating in the World Free Diving Championship that will be held in Bulgaria in 2022 where he aims for a podium finish.
A Saudi sculptor who spent eight years carving the words of the Holy Qur’an onto 30 marble slabs hopes his feat will be recognized by Guinness World Records.
Husban bin Ahmad Al-Enizi’s passion for the art started 20 years ago after he developed an interest in the Arabic language.
He went on to sculpt a stone encyclopedia of basmalah (the opening part of the Qur’an) on blocks and granite sourced from his base in the Tabuk region.
Al-Enizi used Ottoman calligraphy to create his Qur’an sculpture on green marble slabs and said that the Tabuk region, in northwestern Saudi Arabia, with its many castles and palaces, had inspired artists down through the centuries.
The region has been home to the Thamud, Aramean, and Nabataean people, among other tribes, and archaeological sites show human presence dating back several centuries B.C.
Ancient inhabitants of the area produced ploughs, boats, and even houses by carving in wood and stone and Al-Enizi noted that the Saudi government had helped to keep sculpting and other traditional arts and crafts alive through the establishment of the Heritage Commission.
source/content: arabnews.com
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Husban bin Ahmad Al-Enizi used Ottoman calligraphy to create his Qur’an sculpture on green marble slabs. (SPA)
Moroccan-French animator Mounia Aram won the Cultural Innovator Award at the 2022 Black in Animation Awards Show.
The award testifies to Aram’s work in further developing animation media across the African continent while using experimental methods and concepts in her work to tell a unique story.
Aram received her award from a juried committee of professionals from Disney, Netflix, and Nickelodeon.
The Black in Animation Awards state “The Cultural Innovator Award is given to the person who has centered the voices of black people in animation in an innovative way as a content creator or influencer.”
Born in Casablanca and raised in France, Aram studied oriental languages at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris before joining ShoPro Entertainment, a company specializing in Japanese animation-based in San Francisco.
The animation specialist founded the Mounia Aram Company in 2019, a distribution and production company specializing in animation and African culture. Aram has accumulated nearly 20 years of experience in the animation field.
Her work also consists of advising companies in their distribution and development strategies across the African continent as well as mentoring young African talents in animation.
In 2020, Aram was elected a member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in charge of the Emmy Awards. She also joined the Geena Davis Institute last year as Africa council chair.
The Sawiris Foundation for Social Development announced the winners of the 16th Sawiris Cultural Award.
This Edition is considered the largest in the history of the award in terms of the number of submitted works.
A total of 1263 literary works were submitted to various fields of the award.
This year, 12 young and established writers received awards for their distinguished work in the fields including novel, short story, screenplay, playwriting, and literary criticism.
Dr. Iman Yahya won the best novel award – under the established writers’ contest – for her novel ‘Al-Zawga Al-Mexicia’ (The Mexican Wife), published by Dar Al-Shorouk.
Meanwhile, the award for best short story collection, written by an established writer, went to Samir El-Fil for his collection ‘Autobis 77’ (Bus Line 77) that was published by the Egyptian General Book Authority.
The award for best novel written by a young writer went to Ahmed Al-Fakharany for his novel ‘Bayasat Al-Shawam’ published by Dar Al-Ain. The same novel also won the translation award, which was added to the award’s branches this year in an attempt to encourage contemporary literary excellence and introduce creative young writers to readers outside the borders of the Arab region.
As for second-place in the young writers’ novel contest, the award went to Ahmed Al-Morsi for his novel ‘What Remains of the Sun’ published by Dar Al-Bashir.
The first-place prize for best short story collection made by a young writer went to Gilan Al-Shamsi for her short story collection ‘As if the story is missing’ published by Al-Ain Publishing House.
In second-place, Muhammad Faraj won with his short story collection ‘Long Term Plans’ published by Dar Al-Ain.
Regarding the best screenplay award, established writer Samar Taher won for her screenplay of the movie ‘Al-Nazeel’ (The Inmate), while Paula Tadros Thabet won the young writers’ contest for his screenplay of ‘Abdullah’.
In the field of playwriting, the first-place award went to Faisal Rizk for his play ‘Hakawy Al-Aragouz’ (Tales of the puppet), while second-place went to Mina Bebbawy for his play ‘Bernatanya’.
As for the award for best submitted work in the field of literary criticism, it was awarded ex aequo to Sameh Fayez for his book ‘Stories about Reading’ published by the Egyptian-Lebanese House and to Professor Abdel-Nasser Hilal for his book ‘The Visual Turn – from Text to Speech” published by the Egyptian General Book Authority.
In order to encourage young writers, financial rewards are also granted for the shortlisted nominated work.
Granted in the novel contest: ‘Random Arrangements’ by Dunya Kamal Al-Qalash, ‘Ahmar Larang’ (Blood Oranges) by Charles Akl, and ‘Camelia’s Ghosts’ By Nora Naji.
With regard to the short story collection, the grants went to: ‘Sleep Thieves’ by Amjad Al-Sabban, ‘Visions of the Holy City’ by Omaima Subhy, and ‘A Report on Al-Refaeia’ by Muhammad Al-Fuly.
In the screenplay category: ‘The Ghazala who fled the schoolyard’ by Ahmed Ihab Abdel-Warith, ‘Where Did Shaker Abaza Go?’ by Mahmoud Hassan Abdel-Alim, ‘Hamlet’ by Al-Sayed Abdel-Nabi, ‘Kilo 35’ by Mahmoud Ahmed Abd-Rahman.
The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALECSO) member countries have unanimously chosen the UAE to head the Permanent Committee for Arab Culture.
Salma Al Darmaki, Secretary-General of the UAE National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, has been appointed to chair the Permanent Committee.
The decision comes after the 22nd edition of the Conference of Arab Culture Ministers, held in December 2021 at Expo 2020 Dubai. Al Darmaki is the second woman appointed to this position in ALECSO’s history.
The Permanent Committee for Arab Culture is responsible for coordinating the work of various ALECSO member states in cultural fields. The Standing Committee is also mandated to prepare for the Conference of Arab Ministers of Culture.
Al Darmaki has been an Assistant Under-Secretary for Knowledge and Cultural Policy at the Ministry of Culture and Youth since 2018. She has served as a Research Fellow at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development from 2017 to 2018. She was a researcher at the Permanent Mission of the UAE to the United Nations in Switzerland from 2016 to 2017; an expert on Social Policy in the General Secretariat of the Executive Council in Abu Dhabi from 2011 and 2016, and a parliamentary researcher in the General Secretariat of the Federal National Council from 2009-2010. She also worked for the Abu Dhabi Government Restructuring Committee in 2008.
Al Darmaki holds a post-graduate degree in International Law from the University of London, a Master’s in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom, and a bachelor’s degree in International Studies from Zayed University in the UAE.
As Secretary-General of the UAE National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, Al Darmaki managed the campaign for securing a seat for the UAE on the UNESCO Executive Board from 2019 to 2023. She played a crucial role in the first decision submitted by the UAE to the Executive Council of UNESCO on “A Framework for Arts and Culture Education” and the passing of a resolution on the “Building on the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development through Consolidated Action”. Some of her other achievements include the declaration of World Futures Day by UNESCO as an annual international day after being proposed by the UAE. The UAE secured a seat in the intergovernmental committee of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
Al Darmaki has been working with the national authorities to further the cause of cultural, educational and scientific endeavours, such as extending the registration of the falconry file for the fourth time in the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage to become the largest file in the history of the organisation. She also manages the UAE partnership with UNESCO in the pioneering “Revive the Spirit of Mosul” initiative. In addition to supporting the nomination of Abu Dhabi as a Creative City for Music, she has helped make Abu Dhabi the third Emirate to join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network along with Dubai and Sharjah.
