Author: ArabianRecords.org

OMAN: Zahran Alqasmi becomes first Omani to win International Prize for Arabic Fiction

Winning novel The Water Diviner is a poetic work set in rural Oman.

Novelist Zahran Alqasmi is the first Omani to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his fourth novel The Water Diviner.

Announced at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi  on Sunday, Alqasmi was named winner of the $50,000 prize and will also receive funding for an English translation.

Published in 2021, The Water Diviner follows the life of an enigmatic and mystical man employed by Omani villages to track the ebb and flow of local rivers and ravines.

Haunted by the deaths of his parents, “the water diviner” faces his fear as he battles for his life while stuck in a water channel.

Moroccan author Mohammed Achaari, the 2011 IPAF winner and chairman of this year’s judging panel, hailed the work for its innovative subject matter and cohesive structure.

“It is a new subject in modern fiction: water and its impact on the natural environment and the lives of human beings in hostile regions.

“Blurring the boundaries of reality and myth, the novel’s precise structure and sensitive poetic language are the conduit for compelling characters like the water diviner, who plays an essential role in people’s lives, yet simultaneously inspires their fear and revulsion,” he said.

“The Water Diviner transports us to the world, little known in the Arabic novel, of the riverbeds and the aflaj [water channels] of Oman, showing how natural forces influence the relationship between individuals, environment and culture.”

Professor Yasir Suleiman, chairman of the award’s board of trustees, praised Alqasmi’s rich prose and use of authentic Omani colloquialisms.

“The novel takes the reader into a world dominated by vulnerability and ready-made modes of thinking,” he said.

“Written in exquisite language suffused with the local cadences, the novel charms the reader with its narrative flow and poetic impulse.

The Water Diviner was one of six shortlisted novels , which included The Highest Part of the Horizon by Saudi author Fatima Abdulhamid, published by Masciliana in the UAE.

All shortlisted authors will receive a $10,000 prize.

Who is Zahran Alqasmi?

Born in the agriculture region of Dima Wattayeen in northern Oman, Alqasmi is a prolific author – having published four novels, 10 poetry books and two Biography of the Stone short story collections,released in 2009 and 2011.

In an interview on the IPAF website, he says the novel was inspired by his experience growing up in rural Oman.

“Anyone looking at life in the Sultanate of Oman will find that it largely depends upon an old system for providing water for drinking and agriculture, the system of the aflaj,” he said.

“They are a complicated social system, linked to social and class strata. Water is divided in equal shares throughout the year so that the owners of gardens can take what is due to them.

“Since I am a son of one of these villages, since my early childhood I have known a lot about the system of aflaj and heard many astonishing stories and legends connected with this system.

“This enriched me as I wrote the novel. I imagined the environment of the book as an Omani village. I visualised its paths, gardens, alleyways. It was easy at that time to write the chapters fluidly.”

Alqasmi will make his first public appearance after winning the prize at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair on Monday.

Taking place at the Ayasofya Stage at 8.45pm, the discussion will include the shortlisted authors and centre on their works and the challenges facing modern Arabic fiction.

source/content: thenationalnews.com (headline edited)

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2023 International Prize for Arabic Fiction Awards winner Zahran Alqasmi, centre, with Jonathan Taylor, left and Zaki Nusseibeh, cultural adviser to the President of the UAE. Victor Besa / The National

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OMAN

TUNISIA : World Athletics U20 Championships 2024: Tunisia’s Rayen Cherni wins gold in men’s 10,000m race walk, sets Championship record

Multiple area and national records broken in men’s 10,000m event at World Athletics U20 Championships 2024.

Rayen Cherni set a championship record in the men’s 10,000m race walk to win the first ever gold medal for Tunisia at the World Athletics U20 Championships 2024, while China’s Baima Zhuoma dominated the women’s race during the final morning session of action in Lima on Friday.

In a hard-fought men’s race, the top 17 all set area or national U20 records, or achieved PBs, with Cherni winning in an African U20 record of 39:24.85, Mexico’s Emiliano Barba securing silver in a North and Central American U20 record of 39:27.10 and Italy’s Giuseppe Disabato gaining bronze in a national U20 record of 39:31.25.

Australia’s Isaac Beacroft, who won the U20 title on the roads at the World Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya in April, finished fourth on the track in Lima, setting an Oceanian U20 record of 39:36.39, while Japan’s Sohtaroh Osaka finished fifth in a PB of 39:39.36.

It was Germany’s Frederick Weigel who had taken the early lead, but Osaka, Beacroft and Kenya’s Stephen Ndangiri Kihu took control by the halfway point, passed in 20:05.03.

As the pace gradually picked up, the lead pack whittled down, and Barba, Disabato and Cherni made their break. Six athletes remained in contention with four laps to go and eventually 17-year-old Cherni left his rivals behind to win by more than two seconds.

China’s Baima Zhuoma claims gold with personal best in women’s 10,000m race walk at World Athletics U20 Championships 2024

In the women’s race, Baima looked calm and in control throughout. The field quickly spaced out and the 19-year-old, who claimed Asian U20 silver in April, was well clear as she passed the 5000m mark in 21:47.33.

She was followed by India’s Aarti and her Chinese teammate Chen Meiling, last year’s Asian U20 champion, with Romania’s 17-year-old Alessia Cristina Pop, the European U18 silver medallist, looking determined behind them.

While Baima was never under threat, Aarti seemed to be moving away from Chen, but with two red cards Aarti had to be cautious and Chen made her move, passing her rival with three and a half laps to go.

Baima maintained her lead to cruise to victory in a world U20 lead and big PB of 43:26.60, as Chen held on for silver to complete a 1-2 for China in a PB of 44:30.67. Aarti claimed bronze in an Indian U20 record of 44:39.39, while Pop also set a national U20 record of 44:54.32 in fourth. Similar to the men’s race, the top 16 all set national records or PBs.

source/content: khelnow.com (headline edited)

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(Courtesy : @WorldAthletics/Twitter)

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TUNISIA

QATAR set to become world’s largest exporter of urea with construction of new complex

Al-Kaabi also announced that QatarEnergy will more than double the local solar energy production by adding new power plants in Dukhan, to become “one of the largest” of their kind in the world. 

QatarEnergy is set to become the world’s largest exporter of urea by building a new production complex, a move that is set to ramp up production from a current six MTPA (million tonnes per annum) to 12.4 MTPA by 2030, marking a 106 percent spike.

QatarEnergy’s President and CEO Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi announced the mega project in a press conference on Sunday at the Qatari company’s headquarters in Doha. 

In response to the press, Al-Kaabi said the new facility will more than double Qatar’s urea, or fertilizer, production while supporting global food production and security. He noted that the production from the project’s first urea train is expected before the end of this decade.

“When we look at the future market of urea with the growth of humanity[…]the urea requirement for food production will be exponentially increased,” Al-Kaabi told the press.

QatarEnergy announces world’s largest blue ammonia plant 

The expansion process will take place by building three ammonia production lines that will in turn provide feedstock to four new mega urea production trains in Mesaieed Industrial City. 

The announcement also came against the backdrop of Qatar’s growing ammonia and urea production over the past 50 years.

In 2022, QatarEnergy Renewable Solutions and the Qatar Fertilizer Company (QAFCO), inked a major agreement over the development of the Blue Ammonia project, the largest of its kind in the world, in Mesaieed Industrial City.

Production is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2026.

Qatar to more than double solar power production

Al-Kaabi also announced that QatarEnergy will more than double the local solar energy production by adding new power plants in Dukhan, which will become “one of the largest” of their kind in the world. 

The new plant will have a production capacity of 2,000 megawatts, doubling Qatar’s solar power production capacity from existing projects and those still under construction. Some of the projects include the Al-Kharsaah solar power plant, inaugurated in 2022 with the capacity of 800 megawatts.

QatarEnergy, KPC sign 15-year agreement for LNG supply to Kuwait

Others include two solar power plants under construction in Ras Laffan and Mesaieed with a total production capacity of 875 megawatts. According to Al-Kaabi, the production will commence before the end of this year.

“By adding the Dukhan solar power plant to these three plants, we will achieve our Sustainability Strategy objective of about 4,000 megawatts of electricity from solar power by 2030, which makes up 30 percent of Qatar’s total electric power production,” he explained.

Al-Kaabi described the latest announcement as a “continuation” of Qatar’s efforts to provide the world with energy products and meet global needs.

“QatarEnergy’s specialised technical teams will immediately begin the necessary detailed engineering studies to implement these mega projects in accordance with the highest safety, health and environmental standards,” Al-Kaabi said.

source/contents: dohanews.co (headline edited)

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QATAR

SUDAN : For Sudanese Photographer Hashim Nasr, Art is a Sanctuary in Exile

Upon first glance at the works of Hashim Nasr, a Sudanese multidisciplinary artist and photographer now displaced in Alexandria, Egypt, one immediately notices several things; a personal act of deliberate introspection portrayed through his subjects, and an invitation to delve into your own contemplative analysis of said displayed works. Upon further examination, one may note that there is no face to be seen in any of Nasr’s portraits, with the subjects’ faces more often-than-not tactfully – and intentionally – covered with quite the jarring element, a triangular royal blue cone.

But why? While one may guess – and would indeed by partially correct in their guess – that by covering the subjects’ faces, Nasr is able to effectively convey a deeper meaning, one unclouded by superficial perceptions, the real answer is perhaps rooted in serendipity. Nasr’s signature approach to portraiture was not perhaps initially intentional, yet grew to become so. Nasr would begin asking family members to model for his shoots, and for the sake of their own comfort, he would offer them a blue cone to mask their features.

Little did Nasr know that the blue cone would transcend its initial purpose, becoming a symbol that compels viewers to look beyond the surface, mirroring his own childhood desire to be understood in a way that transcends mere visibility – to be deeply seen, even when unseen.

Born in 1990 in Khartoum, Sudan, Nasr’s journey is as multifaceted as his art. Trained initially as a dentist, he balanced the rigorous demands of his profession with an insatiable drive to explore his creative instincts. Nasr’s early forays into the art world were deeply rooted in his connection to his homeland. “I started taking pictures of what I held dearest – my family and the city I call home, Khartoum. My love for photography comes from my love for Khartoum,” he shares. This intrinsic link to his roots has been a cornerstone of his work ever since.

Nasr’s photographs present a world that seems suspended in time between dreams and reality, inviting the viewer to pause and reflect. “These photos are not just pixels; they are my catharsis. The only form I have,” Nasr asserts. In each image, there is a quiet dialogue between the seen and the unseen, the conscious and the subconscious.

In Khartoum, he had the freedom to explore vast, open spaces, and the liberty to use diverse and often unconventional settings for his shoots. However, since his move to Egypt, and more specifically to Alexandria, the dynamics of his work have shifted. Nasr, alongside his family, came to Alexandria in March 2023 on a three week-long vacation, one that turned out to be an unexpected exile as the war in Sudan had intensified, and Nasr could not return home.

Since his displacement to Alexandria, Hashim Nasr has faced significant constraints that have impacted his creative process. “You wake up one day and you realize your country is at war. It changes everything,” Nasr reflects. The once vibrant streets and open spaces of his hometown, which served as the canvas for his explorations, have been replaced by the marginally restrictive environment of Alexandria. “Reality has never sunk in. There are days I’d wake up and find myself back in Khartoum, only to realize I am not.” This dislocation has not only been a physical one but also a profound emotional and artistic shift.

In Alexandria, Nasr has encountered a city that, while rich in history and culture, imposes tighter limitations on his artistic freedom, whether deliberately or not. “It is not easy to walk around the streets of Alexandria with my camera and take photos. I felt trapped. What was my catharsis was now no longer attainable, not in the way that I had accustomed myself to.” Despite the city’s picturesque spirit, Nasr has only managed to conduct two outdoor shoots since his arrival, finding the public spaces less accessible and open to his creative expressions. “The fishermen just kept asking me, ‘what the hell are you doing?’ and I had to make up some story about a university project. I’m 34.”

Faced with these challenges, Nasr has turned inward, creating art within the confines of his own private spaces. “I began making art in my room, playing with light and shadow. It’s my safe haven; no one can tell me ‘you can’t shoot here’.” In the intimacy of his room, he manipulates light and shadow to craft evocative scenes using his own hands, resonating with the themes of solitude and introspection that permeate his work. This transition to working indoors has become a new frontier for Nasr, a place where he can still explore his artistic vision without external interference.

However, this adaptation has not been without its struggles. “All these dreams I had slowly started transforming into realities were now once more fading away. It’s been difficult, and it’s not as easy as it was back in Khartoum.” The limitations in Alexandria have challenged Nasr to rethink his approach and find new ways to express his creativity, even as he navigates the emotional and practical difficulties of his displacement. Through this process, he continues to explore the depths of his inner world, finding solace and expression in the play of light and shadow within his own sanctuary.

While his earlier works were deeply personal, exploring themes of loneliness and masculinity, his recent creations have been profoundly influenced by his experiences of exile. Now, his art navigates the painful realities of displacement and the concept of home, both physically and mentally. The recurring motifs of the blue cone and other geometric shapes have evolved to symbolize not just personal introspection but also the broader and more poignant themes of exile and identity.

In Alexandria, Nasr finds himself in a state of limbo. “For me now, Alexandria has become a second home, my family is here. It’s unimaginable to leave them behind. Yet I want to explore, I want to grow, I want to seek opportunities abroad to expand on my artistic abilities, but I cannot leave them behind.” This duality reflects the complex reality of exile – a simultaneous pull towards new horizons and an unbreakable bond with the past. His longing for exploration and artistic growth is tempered by the deep-rooted ties to his family and the shared experience of displacement.

“The idea of having a new home, it’s not something easy to adapt to. There’s something missing. It is a feeling so intense and unescapable,” Nasr confides. This poignant sentiment echoes throughout his work, as he navigates the emotional landscape of exile. The sense of something irrevocably lost, yet clashing the necessity of building a new life, is a recurring undercurrent in his photography. His images encapsulate the struggle to find a sense of belonging in an unfamiliar place while holding onto the memories and identity tied to a homeland left behind. “Such is the reality of exile,” he adds.

Through his lens, Nasr offers a profound exploration of what it means to be caught between worlds, crafting a narrative that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.

source/content: cairoscene.com (headline edited)

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SUDAN

ARAB: 12 Arab Films to Steal Spotlight at 2024 Venice Film Festival

The films tell stories of hopes, dreams, and challenges from the Arab world.

Arab cinema is about to make waves as the 81st Venice Film Festival rolls out the red carpet. 

Running from August 28 to September 7, this year’s Venice International Film Festival will feature 12 Arab films backed by the Doha Film Institute.

These movies will light up key sections of the festival, including Orrizonti and Orrizonti Shorts, and make waves at Critics Week, Giornate degli Autori, Final Cut, and the Venice Gap-Financing Market.

These selections showcase the rich diversity of the region, bringing unique stories from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, and Yemen into the spotlight.

Highlights include “My Father’s Scent” by Mohamed Siam, featuring Egyptian star Ahmed Malek, “Aïcha” by Mehdi Barsaoui, and “Sudan, Remember Us” by Hind Meddeb, which offers a powerful portrayal of a generation’s fight for freedom through words, poems, and chants.

“We are proud to continue a successful festival season with a strong showcase of films by Arab talent at Venice,” stated Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, chief executive officer of the Doha Film Institute.

“Our mission is to support independent creators in cinema, and the compelling selection at Venice is a testament to our commitment to shed light on stories that transcend borders and present unique perspectives. We hope these films receive the acclaim and attention they deserve,” she added.

The 2024 Venice International Film Festival is set to showcase a diverse array of Arab cinema. 

In the Orizzonti category, the festival will present “Aïcha” directed by Mehdi Barsaoui and “Happy Holidays” by Scandar Copti. The Orizzonti Shorts category will meanwhile include “Shadows” by Rand Beiruty.

“Sudan, Remember Us,” directed by Hind Meddeb, will be showcased in the Giornate degli Autori section. Critics’ Week will highlight “Perfumed with Mint” by Muhammed Hamdy.

The Final Cut section will present several notable films, including “Aisha Can’t Fly Away” by Morad Mostafa, “In This Darkness I See You” by Nadim Tabet, “My Father’s Scent” by Mohamed Siam, and “Those Who Watch Over” by Karima Saidi.

Finally, the Venice Gap-Financing Market will feature “Marie & Jolie” by Erige Sehiri, “The Station” by Sara Ishaq, and “Theft Of Fire” by Amer Shomali.

With a lineup that promises to dazzle and surprise, these films are set to turn heads and set new standards.

source/content: moroccoworldnews.com (headline edited)

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12 Arab Films to Steal Spotlight at 2024 @ Venice Film Festival

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EGYPT, JORDAN, LEBANON, MOROCCO, PALESTINE, TUNISIA & YEMEN

U.A.E: League of Arab States recognizes the achievements of Emirati women as Arab role models

The League of Arab States has hailed the achievements and contributions of Emirati women at the national level, calling them a role model in the Arab world.

Ambassador Dr. Haifa Abu Ghazaleh, Assistant Secretary-General and Head of Social Affairs sector at League of Arab state, congratulated the UAE leadership, government and people on Emirati Women’s Day, which is a source of pride for Arabs due to the prominent position achieved by the UAE women at the Arab, regional and international levels.

In her statements to the Emirates News Agency (WAM), Dr. Abu Ghazaleh praised the efforts of HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak (The Mother of the Nation), Chairwoman of the General Women’s Union (GWU), President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood (SCMC), and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation (FDF), to enhance the status of Emirati women in all fields for more than 5 decades and commended the great achievements of the General Women’s Union under her leadership, making Emirati women an honorable model for Arab women.

She added that the assumption of important and influential positions by Emirati women reflects their pioneering role in society and makes them a bright sign in the Arab world, noting that the achievements of Emirati women represent a strong push towards further progress and excellence at all levels.

Dr. Abu Ghazaleh wished Emirati women further success and prosperity and expressed her aspiration for women in the UAE and the Arab world to witness more progress and active participation in building societies.

source/content: wam.ae (headline edited)

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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (U.A.E)

ARAB AWARDS: 8 University Lecturers on Shortlist for Most Innovative Teacher in Arab World

Times Higher Education has announced a shortlist of eight finalists for its Most Innovative Teacher of the Year in the Arab World award.

The winner will be announced in December during the Arab Universities Summit in Jordan. Times Higher Education (THE), a British higher-education data company widely known for its World University Rankings, is organising the award in partnership with the University of Jordan and Al-Ahliyya Amman University.

The most innovative teacher award is part of a competition called THE Awards Arab World, which aims to “identify and promote innovative and inspiring work taking place at higher education institutions, whatever their size, reputation, or focus, and wherever they may be located.” Candidates for the awards may come from internationally renowned institutions or lesser-known institutions operating in challenging circumstances.

Times Higher Education said it had received over 400 entries from 15 countries for this year’s awards, which have 12 categories. To see the full lists of shortlisted candidates in each category, please click here.

Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s chief global affairs officer, said it had been a huge challenge to narrow down the field and select the “elite group” of candidates for the most innovative teacher shortlist. “Those who made it should be very proud of their achievements,” he said.

The finalists for the Most Innovative Teacher award are:

The awards website gives a brief summary of each competitor. Following are excerpts from those descriptions:

Ibrahim Issa Al Balushi. Al Balushi is a senior lecturer and head of entrepreneurship and business incubation activities, as well as the head of the Curriculum and Instructional Resources Committee at the College of Engineering, National University of Science and Technology, in Oman. Known for his innovative teaching strategies and student support, Al Balushi received the Academic Excellence Award for Best Teacher in the College of Engineering in 2021. He also plays a key role in national projects aimed at developing entrepreneurship courses.

Fatma Alzahraa Abdelsalam Elkhamisi. Elkhamisi is an assistant professor of pathology and director of the International Student Unit at the Faculty of Medicine at Helwan University, in Egypt. She has implemented a continuous cycle of student-centred approaches, emphasising clinical relevance, diverse learning styles, and motivation theories. Elkhamisi is known for designing engaging learning environments using digital tools, collaborative work, peer teaching, and reflective learning.

Mohamed Amin. Amin is an associate professor and coordinator of social responsibility activities at Alamain International University, in Egypt. He teaches an elective course called “Community Participation in the Development of Modern Egypt” using innovative methods such as the flipped classroom model, game-based learning, and project-based learning.

Abir Enany. Enany is a faculty member and vice dean of the Faculty of Science at Egypt’s Misr University for Science and Technology. In the spring semester of 2023, she introduced a new approach to teaching a course on ancient Egyptian archaeology from the Middle Kingdom. Her innovative plan involved transforming course topics into sustainable development projects, with each site assigned to a student group for development, making the material more engaging and understandable.

Amer Hijazi. Hijazi is recognised as one of the top 10 influencers at Jordan’s Ahliyya Amman University, where he is transforming educational standards by engaging students as active participants. His innovative teaching methods, including software clinics that reflect industry standards, focus on creativity rather than traditional metrics, significantly impacting sustainable development goals like quality education and sustainable cities.

Mohamed Ismail. Ismail is a professor of physics at the Faculty of Engineering at Egypt University of Informatics. Upon returning to Egypt after earning his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from Kansas State University, in the United States, he introduced innovative teaching methods. He developed a mobile application for interactive student feedback, real-time comprehension assessments during large lectures, and live demonstrations. Ismail also leads faculty initiatives to support students’ academic, social, and psychological well-being. Additionally, he founded a popular YouTube channel that has become the most-watched physics channel in the Arab world, expanding his teaching reach globally.

Zahy Ramadan. Ramadan is a professor of marketing and management at the Lebanese American University, in Beirut. Times Higher Education quotes from Ramadan’s application: “As an academic with 20 years of experience in marketing across the Middle East, Gulf, and Asia Pacific regions, I believe in a holistic learning approach that emphasises continuous high engagement, interactive scenario building, market simulations, integrating advanced research into the curriculum, and learning by doing.”

Rami Abdullah Wahsheh. Wahsheh is an associate professor in the departments of communications engineering and electrical engineering at Jordan’s Princess Sumaya University of Science and Technology. Wahsheh said: “My goal as a teacher is to help students understand the subject matter and learn how to teach themselves beyond structured learning, by focusing on fundamental problem-solving skills.”

He added: “To encourage students to continuously learn, explore knowledge, solve problems, and connect course content to job market skills, I have revised my approach to recording lectures. This involves linking examples given to real-world practical applications. I have also adopted new techniques in teaching and learning.”

YouTube Channel Leads to Job Offer

When he heard he had been shortlisted for the Times Higher Education award, Ismail told Al Fanar Media: “I’m thrilled, as it honours over twenty-two years of my career in higher education.”

Ismail said he joined Egypt University of Informatics at the request of students. “The students, who were following my YouTube channel and struggling with physics, went to the dean of the college, Dr. Amr Elmasry, and asked for my help. The university then reached out to me via email with a great job offer, and I decided to join them.”

Last year, YouTube gave Ismail a YouTube Creator Award for his scientific content’s widespread popularity. His channel, “Physics for Engineers,” has over 198,000 subscribers and has garnered millions of views.

source/content: al-fanarmedia.org (headline edited)

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 Times Higher Education announces the shortlist for its Most Innovative Teacher of the Year in the Arab World award.

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EGYPT / JORDAN / LEBANON / OMAN

QATAR Airways acquires 25% stake in South Africa’s Airlink

In a strategic move to expand its presence in Africa, Qatar Airways Group has announced the acquisition of a 25% stake in Airlink, a prominent regional carrier based in Southern Africa. This investment, revealed on August 20, 2024, aims to enhance the existing code-sharing partnership between the two airlines and bolster Qatar Airways’ growth strategy across the African continent.

Airlink, established in 1992, has a robust network covering more than 45 destinations in 15 African countries. With a fleet of over 65 jetliners, it serves various cities throughout Southern Africa, as well as destinations in Madagascar and St Helena Island.

The collaboration is expected to bring mutual benefits, including network expansion, increased capacity, and extended marketing reach. Airlink Chief Executive Rodger Foster highlighted the significance of the deal, saying, “Having Qatar Airways as an equity partner is a powerful endorsement of Airlink and echoes our faith in the markets we currently serve and plan to add to our network.”

The partnership will also align both carriers’ loyalty programs – Qatar Airways Privilege Club and Airlink Skybucks – offering enhanced benefits to customers.

Qatar Airways, which currently flies to 29 destinations in Africa, has been actively pursuing its Africa growth strategy since 2019. The airline has been expanding its presence on the continent, adding new destinations such as Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Harare, Kano, Luanda, Lusaka, and Port Harcourt to its network, while also resuming services to Cairo and Alexandria.

This investment follows Qatar Airways’ previous strategic moves in Africa, including acquiring a 60% stake in a new multi-billion-dollar international airport being built near Kigali, Rwanda, in 2019.

As part of its broader expansion plans, Qatar Airways has also announced increased flight frequencies to popular tourism destinations. Starting October 27, the airline will add an eighth daily flight to London, bringing the total to 56 weekly flights. Additionally, it plans to increase services to Male (Maldives), Miami (US), and Tokyo (Japan) during the 2024-2025 winter season.

This latest acquisition underscores Qatar Airways’ commitment to strengthening its position in the African aviation market and capitalizing on the continent’s growth potential.

source/content: gtrmag.com /globaltravelretailmagazine (headline edited)

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Senior executives from Qatar Airways and Airlink at the announcement

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QATAR

COMOROS / BRITISH : Turner Prize-winning artist Lubaina Himid on the power of collaboration

The artist, also a guest editor of ‘Bazaar Art’ praises communal creative practice and refutes the notion of the lone genius.

Some people imagine that making art, being a visual artist, is best accomplished and performed alone; I’m pretty certain they are wrong. My own experience has been exactly the opposite from the beginning.

I am an only child, the daughter of an English textile designer and a Comorian college lecturer; I was born in Zanzibar. As a little girl in the early 1960s, I played in the streets and back gardens of Maida Vale in London with two boys who lived nearby. Together we dug an enormous hole, without our parents’ knowledge or permission, to prepare for a swimming pool.

At school, in the art room, the teacher asked us to design the costumes and sets for Cyrano de Bergerac, a play in which it took two men, via poetry and letters, to court a young woman. As head girl, I joined others going out on strike to protest about democracy and freedom of speech.

At art college, which I hated almost as much as school, it was clear that the young women students were being educated to be assistants to the men. We outnumbered, out-lifted and outperformed them at every available opportunity. I learned that to succeed in theatre design you needed to be a team player—but not a woman.

As a waitress in Covent Garden in the mid-1970s, it was obvious that without the chefs, the washing-up staff and each other, we could never have survived the disdain, the flirting, and the exhaustion inflicted upon us by the customers.

The early days of organising, making and showing with other Black women artists in London were, for me, the real beginnings of my collaborative practice. We worked alongside each other in domestic studios and spoke frankly about funding and the need for studio space, as well as our doubts and fears for the future of our creative endeavours. Some women worked with each other on groundbreaking community print projects and then alongside me to make an exhibition happen. We functioned on the very outer edges of a pretty unfriendly art world for which we had huge expectation of change but an infinitesimal amount of experience as to how this could be done.

During the 40 years since those early showing days of the 1980s, my desire to work with others has grown stronger. Without the collaborative experience of working with a studio team; talking and testing, exchanging ideas, being challenged and having to rethink and compromise (in a good way), my work would be totally different: less daring, less exciting for me and more introspective (in a bad way).

There have been art historians who asked serious and intense questions about the process and curators who enabled me to be myself by taking care of me. Importantly, they dealt with the practicalities and the administrative complexities, so that the only thing I had to worry about was the making and developing or ‘how to push everything I could to the limit’.

Close friends—all artists—have in the past been invaluable partners in my work, constantly questioning, offering expertise or supporting a series of seemingly illogical projects with practical help, money, or by cooking comforting meals, making endless cups of tea or providing favourite biscuits.

During the years I spent preparing full-time art students for the challenging years ahead, which I knew would be filled with unexpected opportunities and inevitable setbacks, my advice to them was always to work with other artists who had different areas of expertise from themselves to make pop-up shows, workshops, group performance projects, homemade ’zines and moving-image productions. I tried to persuade them that it is impossible to do everything yourself, and that their own work would suffer, as would that of their fellow artists, unless they worked for an agreed common goal. Their paintings and films, installations and prints would be stronger, still individual, but part of a wider conversation.

Recently, I have learned how to listen more carefully to the sounds in my head and begun to understand how to make this real in my paintings and installations by working with Magda StawarskaBeavan, an artist who makes screen prints, paintings, and drawings as well as moving-image and sound-composition projects.

For a few years on and off we made screen prints, Magda leading and printing, then gradually worked on sound pieces—mostly hers and occasionally mine. As part of a recent show at Wiels contemporary art centre in Brussels called ‘Risquons-Tout’, we worked for several months during the fiercest lockdowns in the North West of England on an installation called ‘The Blue Grid Test’, combining a 25-metre blue painting on found objects with a six-channel sound work. We talked extensively about codes and patterns, language and love, colour and rhythm, and worked alongside each other, wandering in and out of her studio and mine. All the while, as we built layers of understanding and multiple connections through music and language using invented texts in French, English and Flemish, Magda developed a composition piece that wraps and envelops the audience. I painted a long thin line in many shades of blue. It became a room in which 64 global patterns on numerous items found neglected in cupboards, basements and on shelves in the house, spoke and sang in and out of harmony with the words and music. I felt this could be the beginning of a determination to add to our previous collaborations during the past 10 years by making real more experimental   projects, in print and with sound, in between working on our own exhibitions.

If you can find someone who will listen to you as intently as you are prepared to listen to them, you have probably found the perfect collaborative partner. Be willing to say what you want and then have that idea bettered, and you may have the solution to creating artwork that really could make a difference.

This piece originally appeared in the November 2021 print edition of Harper’s Bazaar UK 

source/content: harpersbazaar.in (headline edited)

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BRITISH / TANZANIA / COMOROS

YEMEN: Eqbal Dauqan Ph.D : She May Be The Most Unstoppable Scientist In The World

Two years ago, Eqbal Dauqan was going to work in the morning as usual. She’s a biochemistry professor. And was driving on the freeway, when suddenly: “I felt something hit my car, but I didn’t know what it was because I was driving very fast,” she says.

Dauqan reached the parking lot. Got out of the car and looked at the door. What she saw left her speechless.

“A bullet hit the car, just on the door,” she says.

The door had stopped the bullet. And Dauqan was OK. She has no idea where the bullet came from. But it turned out to be an ominous sign of what was to come.

Gender Canyon

Dauqan is a female scientist in what’s possibly the hardest place on Earth to be a woman: Yemen.

The World Economic Forum ranks Yemen as the worst country for women’s rights. In Yemen, many women can’t leave the house without permission from a male relative.

“If she goes out with her husband or brother, that’s OK. But not by herself. ” Dauqan says. “Not everyone follows this. But this is our culture.”

A culture where two-thirds of women can’t read. About half are married by age 18 — and sometimes as young as age 8.

And then there’s the black veil. Many women in Yemen wear a niqab — a black veil that completely covers their faces, except for a tiny slit across the eyes.

Daquan wears a niqab when she’s in Yemen. She even wore one during her TEDx talk there back in 2014. But she doesn’t wear one in other countries.

“I cover my face [in Yemen] because I respect the culture,” Dauqan says. “I respect the culture.”

She may respect it — but not blindly. For the past decade, Dauqan has burst through glass ceiling after glass ceiling with fearlessness and grace.

Even as a young girl, she was a rebel. “I was a little naughty,” she says with a snicker.

She liked breaking rules. And proving people wrong. So when her parents told her she might not have the smarts to go into science and engineering — like her dad — Eqbal thought: Watch me.

“I told my father, ‘I’ve heard a lot about scientists in chemistry. What is the difference between me and them? So I want to try,” she says.

And she did more than try. She crushed it.

Eqbal won over her father and got his financial support. She was the first among her friends to finish college. Then she got a scholarship to do her Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Universiti Kebansaan Malaysia, where she studied the nutritional properties of palm oil.

That led to her writing a popular book about the fruits mentioned in the Holy Quran and their health benefits. For example, Indian Jujube — also known as red dates — are the most cultivated plant in the world and have 20 times more vitamin C than citrus fruit, Eqbal writes in her book.

Next came the prizes. In 2014, Dauqan was named one of the top female scientists in the developing world by the Elsevier Foundation. News programs in the Middle East and in China ran feature stories on her. She became so famous that Al Saeed University made her an assistant professor and head of a department — all this before she’d turned 35. Dauqan was on top of the world.

And then one morning, it was all taken away.

“They were just sleeping”

In March 2015, Dauqan’s hometown of Taiz got pulled into Yemen’s bloody civil war. Planes started flying over head, dropping bombs — even on homes and schools.

“They were bombing my university!” Dauqan exclaims. “They killed some of my students.

“It was really bad. Really bad,” she says. “I’ll show you.”

Dauqan turns to her computer and brings up some photos. On the screen is a photo of several bodies laying flat on the ground. The bodies are covered in white sheets, with only their faces showing.

“This is nine person from my family,” she says. “They were sleeping. And a bomb hit their house. They all died. Nine person from my family.”

A few of the bodies are small.

“Those are two children in our family,” Dauqan adds. “They were just sleeping.”

And then they were gone — Dauqan’s cousins on her father side and their sons and daughters.

“That is why I leave my country,” she says.

“I have to be strong. I want to be strong”

After the bombings began, Dauqan had to stop her research. The university shut down. And it wasn’t safe for her to leave home. She was trapped in a city where snipers target children and bombs fall on mosques, schools and markets.

During one month of 2015, doctors treated more than 4,000 civilians in a Taiz hospital, the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders reported. MSF hospitals have been hit with bombs four times.

Across Yemen, about 10,000 civilians have been killed in the war and more than 40,000 have been wounded. the U.N. reports. More than 370,000 children are now malnourished because they can’t get food.

And then one day, after spending months in hiding, Dauqan had an idea: Maybe her science could get her out of the war.

She started texting her mentor, Aminah Abdullah, a food scientist at the Universiti Kebangsaan in Malaysia. They applied for a special refugee scholarship with the Institute of International Education-Scholar Rescue Fund, based in New York. She got it, and after a few months, she was safe on a plane headed for Malaysia.

Now she’s working to save up money so she can bring her parents and sister to Malaysia. “It’s very difficult,” she says. “But I have to be strong. I want to be strong!”

Dauqan works long hours in labs, continues to publish papers and mentor students. And she has never lost sight of her dreams — even her ultimate dream.

“My dream is to win the Nobel Prize,” Dauqan says with a chuckle. “It is very hard. So I don’t know. “

But Dauqan has already done so much for science — and society. When little girls in the Middle East see photos of Eqbal as a chemist — wearing a head scarf, measuring pH — they don’t need to use their imagination to think: “I could be just like her. I could be a scientist.”

source/content: npr.org (headline edited)

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“In college, I would tell my friends that I wanted to pursue a Ph.D., and they would chuckle and ridicule the idea,” says Eqbal Dauqan, who is an assistant professor at the University Kebangsaan Malaysia at age 36. Born and raised in Yemen, Dauqan credits her “naughty” spirit for her success in a male-dominated culture.Sanjit Das for NPR

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YEMEN