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The video chain features 265 people of different nationalities speaking various languages while passing the “Expo 2020 Dubai” pin in the Al Forsan Park at Expo 2020 Dubai.
The Dubai Police General Command and Expo 2020 Dubai received an official Guinness certificate in the presence of Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashemy, Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director-General of the Expo 2020 Dubai Office; Major General Ahmed Mohammed Rafea, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police for Administrative Affairs; Brigadier Saleh Murad, Director of the General Department of Human Resources; and many officers and officials representing the various pavilions at the global event.
The event witnessed the participation of 265 people, 146 females and 119 males, from 193 nationalities of participating pavilions at Expo 2020 Dubai.
The first Egyptian aviator set out to fly from Berlin to Cairo on 25 January 1930 and arrived one day later on 26 January, now celebrated as Egypt’s National Civil Aviation Day.
Mohamed Sedki the Egyptian pilot who took off from Berlin, and went from one place to Europe with another plane until he arrived in Cairo on January 26, 1930 / pix: egyptian-gazette.com
One of the most intriguing chapters in Egyptian history records early attempts by the country’s aviators to fly solo from Mohamed Sedki the Egyptian pilot who took off from Berlin, and went from one place to Europe with another plane until he arrived in Cairo on January 26, 1930Europe to Egypt, with 26 January, Egypt’s National Civil Aviation Day, marking the first successful flight of Egyptian pilot Mohamed Sedki from Berlin to Cairo in 1930.
Sedki’s success and earlier attempts earned the support of former king Fouad, always interested in supporting exploration and discoveries whether in the air or on land. But how much do we know today about these attempts and of the Egyptian pioneers who courageously flew these planes, sometimes risking their lives?
The successful attempt by Sedki in January 1930 to fly from Europe to Egypt was preceded by other unforgettable attempts.
There were those by Ahmed Hassanein Pasha, a legendary figure in the history of aviation. Better known for his exploration of the Western Desert, he was one of the most powerful men in various governments under king Fouad and king Farouk and an adventurer at heart, attempting to fly from Europe to Egypt several times before 1930.
His wish was to fly from Egypt to London in a small plane across the Mediterranean. On his first attempt, he succeeded in flying over the Mediterranean, but a few hours later his plane crashed in southern France and was destroyed. However, Hassanein survived to continue to pursue his obsession, and he bought another small plane to fly again.
This time, the plane fell in Switzerland, but Hassanein once again escaped death and decided to buy a third plane and try again. On his third attempt, the plane fell in Italy, and Hassanein was so seriously injured that the Italian doctors that rescued him considered he had died. But according to the story told in celebrated journalist Mustafa Amin’s book Unforgotten Figures, Hassanein recalled the words of Egyptian poet laureate Ahmed Shawki and described himself as a layth or lion.
He started repeating the words “courage lion” to himself at the hospital in an attempt to defeat death. The words seemed to work magic, and he surprised his doctors with a speedy recovery despite his condition.
Whether true or not, the story speaks of Hassanein’s unrelenting spirit. Rather than give up on further attempts at flying after his near death, Hassanein made a fourth endeavour to fly to Europe. A few days after leaving the hospital, he bought a fourth plane. But half an hour before flying, one of the technicians boarded the plane to do a final check, and five minutes later the plane turned into a ball of fire, with Hassanein watching in disbelief.
This was the fourth and last attempt that sealed Hassanein’s flying adventures and put an end to his aspirations.
The Egyptian Eagle
Hassanein’s plane was named Faiza after one of king Fouad’s daughters, also the name of the first plane that successfully crossed the Mediterranean to land in Egypt in 1930 piloted by “Egyptian Eagle” Mohamed Sedki.
The plane Sedki flew was a small one-seater that weighed 250 kg and had a 40 horsepower engine. Sedki used it to fly from Berlin to Alexandria, where he landed at the Abu Kir airport on 25 January. He had started his epic flight across Europe on 12 January, passing through the former Czechoslovakia, the former Yugoslavia, and Italy all the way to Egypt in unfavourable weather. Governor of Alexandria Hassan Sabry Pasha welcomed him at the Airport, before he flew again to Heliopolis Airport in Cairo, arriving on 26 January.
Sedki’s successful flight caused a sensation at the time, as thousands of people cheered him on at Heliopolis Airport, where a model plane made of flowers awaited him. Captain Goldsmith, in charge of the Abu Kir Airport at the time, exclaimed that Sedki’s was the smallest airplane he had ever set his eyes on. In Cairo, Sedki’s feat was celebrated at a formal ceremony that included representatives of king Fouad, such as Yehia Pasha, as well as prince Abbas Halim, prime minister Mustafa Al-Nahhas Pasha, minister of transport Mahmoud Al-Nokrashi, and the delegated German minister.
Kamal Elwi, another Egyptian pilot who had learned to fly before Sedki and whose private plane was the first registered plane in Egypt, was also present during the ceremony. It was graced by the presence of poet laureate Ahmed Shawki, the same poet who had earlier called Hassanein the lion. Sedki, Shawki said, was like a young Egyptian leader coming back from battle crowned with victory, adding that he saw in Sedki’s face the lines of a true ancient Egyptian, with this being the secret behind his courage.
His words chimed with the rising sense of Egyptian nationalism and pride in Egypt’s roots at a time of British colonisation, a pride that manifested itself in the literary sphere with works dedicated to Egypt’s past like Shawki’s own magnificent play The Death of Cleopatra.
The royal reception Sedki received was complemented by king Fouad’s awarding him the Gold Medal of Excellence and a gift of LE1,000 for his services to the nation. His successful flight also resulted in the establishment of the first club for Egyptian aviation in Cairo, which held another celebration for Sedki as Egypt’s first international pilot on 29 January 1930. Sedki was awarded a share in the club to the value of LE50.
Together with Kamal Elwy, and Talaat Harb, founder of the first Egyptian bank, Sedki called for the establishment of EgyptAir, Egypt’s first airline company. His success was considered a national feat at a time when the British were reluctant to allow Egypt to enter the field of aviation, since Britain had its own airline company operating in Egypt and did not want the competition.
One obstacle that Sedki encountered when trying to realise his dream was obtaining the approval of the British to fly to Egypt from abroad, an approval that he only obtained after long weeks of anticipation. Harb said during the celebration that before Sedki’s success, Egypt had been deprived of having its own pilots and its own national airports, but now that Sedki had debunked British claims that the Egyptians were unable to act as pilots, there was hope that they could be equal to other nations in the field of aviation.
A series of domestic flights followed Sedki’s international flight as he flew to Upper Egypt, first to Luxor and then to Aswan before flying back to Luxor. From there, he flew to Minya and Assiut on 27 March. Yet, for all this, Sedki did not stay in the limelight for long, and on 27 June that same year he flew back to Germany, claiming that the government in Egypt had not given him the proper appreciation, offering him a minor post with a meagre salary and barely enough to look after his plane.
He rejected the job offer and left Egypt from Heliopolis Airport, the same one where he had received a hearty welcome on his successful arrival earlier the same year.
Graduate Number 34
Al-Nadi /pix: english.ahram.org.eg
Between Sedki’s solo flight in 1930 and 1933, 33 male pilots graduated from Egypt’s School of Aviation. But graduate number 34 was certainly different, as this time the graduate was Lotfia Al-Nadi, the first Egyptian and African woman aviator to earn a pilot’s licence after US pilot Amelia Earhart with whom she exchanged letters.
In a later interview explaining her decision to train as a pilot, Al-Nady said that “I was young, eager to learn things and to accomplish something, but there were few directions that I could pursue. I read about a programme for flying that was being established,” and this was invitation enough for her to join. She was 26 when she flew her first plane from Alexandria to Cairo after training for just 67 days.
However, Al-Nadi’s career as a pilot was not an easy one. She had a reluctant mother and an initially unsupportive father, and she had to find a way to afford her flying lessons and to take them secretly. Kamal Elwy, the then director of EgyptAir, offered her a job as a telephone operator and secretary with the company, and Al-Nadi used her salary to pay for flying classes. Her secret was later revealed when her father saw a picture of her in the international press.
She was finally able to appease her father and earn his support when she took him as her first passenger on a ride above Cairo and around the Pyramids. “I took my father for a flight,” she later said. “At first, he sat stiffly, but then I noticed that his head was swiveling to the right and left. I asked him about it after we landed, and he told me he had been frightened, but then he had decided that he was in the hands of his daughter. He knew that if we crashed, we would crash together, so he relaxed and began to enjoy the flight.”
Al-Nadi’s singular career was undertaken at a moment that overlapped with the fight for women’s rights in Egypt and for women’s rights to education. Not surprisingly, Hoda Shaarawi, the famous Egyptian feminist leader of the time, honoured Al-Nadi and held a fundraising drive for her so that she could buy a plane of her own.
Among her adventures, Al-Nadi recalls how on one occasion her engine failed and she had to land in the desert where she was helped by Bedouin and given a bony mule to ride on her way back to Cairo. “I often laughed that the mule was more dependable than my Moth airplane,” she said.
Sadly, Al-Nadi’s remarkable aviation career ended abruptly in the early 1950s when she had a tragic accident while landing that left her with a broken spine. She left Egypt for Switzerland for a long period of treatment, remaining in the country for many years. Eventually, she was awarded Swiss nationality.
In 1989, Al-Nady was given the Order of Merit, the highest distinction of the Egyptian Aerospace Education Organisation. She returned to Egypt permanently, dying in the country in 2002 at the age of 95. Today, she is considered to have opened the way for other women pilots, among them Linda Masoud, the first female pilot coach, and Aziza Moharram, the first female director of the Aviation Academy, not to mention other pilots like Dina Al-Sawy, Hasnaa Taymour, and Heba Darwish.
Less well known than Al-Nadi, yet equally important to the history of Egyptian aviation is Esmat Ahmed Fouad, another woman who learnt to fly but did not obtain a pilot’s license.
Esmat’s story remains inspiring because she joined the School of Aviation and was flying at the age of just 14. Her two sisters, Kadreya and Aisha, followed suit and also learnt to fly. But the three sisters could not obtain pilot’s licenses as they were under the age of 17. They did not pursue flying careers, which is why in his book Civil Aviation in Egypt author Abdel-Latif Al-Sabbagh considers Al-Nadi to be the real pioneer of Egypt’s women aviators.
EgyptAir
The stories of individual endeavours to fly solo internationally interweave with the story of commercial flights in Egypt and the attempt to establish the national airline Egypt Air.
In 1924, the Ministry of Transportation formed a committee to launch commercial flights in Egypt, and this suggested the establishment of the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA), whose mission would be to oversee air navigation and the country’s newly established airports. The project was highly acclaimed at the time, as it was needed to organise the arrival and departure of international planes. It was planned to establish the ECAA within five years.
In the same year, a group of Egyptian businessmen headed by Hassan Anis Pasha started to establish a company for commercial flights in Egypt. After much searching for the right types of plane, they recommended one made entirely of metal with three engines and the capacity to carry 12 passengers and two tons of merchandise. This project signalled the establishment of EgyptAir, Egypt’s national airline. In 1927, the government established the ECAA, and between 1927 and 1929 it sent three missions to train abroad.
EgyptAir was not formally established until 1931, when, thanks to the Egyptian young people who had received their training abroad, the idea of civil aviation eventually saw a revival after years of stagnation. Almaza Airport, the country’s first, was established in the same year — the earlier Heliopolis Airport mainly served the British air force, and other flights were not allowed to use it.
The history of civil aviation in Egypt is an inspiring one, a story of persistence, hope, and freedom for a whole country to have the right to fly. Stories of Egypt’s early aviators cannot fail to make future flights with EgyptAir more meaningful, and they deserve to be commemorated in a national museum dedicated to civil aviation, something which at present does not exist.
It is perhaps high time we thought of establishing such a museum in order to remind ourselves of the meaning of National Civil Aviation Day and to keep the day alive.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
Jonathan Broxton, a veteran music critic with Movie Music UK, has included the Pharaoh’s Golden Parade music by Hisham Nazih in his choices for best works of 2021.
Broxton is a Los Angeles-based British film music reviewer who for over the past two decades has written reviews published on Movie Music UK, an internationally renowned online platform dedicated to monitoring and writing about new developments in film music.
Each year, Broxton, who is also a member of the International Film Music Critics Association, sums up the year and picks his favourite works from the film industry from all around the globe.
In his latest entry titled Movie Music UK Awards 2021, Broxton highlighted the Pharaoh’s Golden Parade with music by Egyptian composer Hesham Nazih.
In April 2021, 22 royal mummies of ancient Egyptian kings and queens were transferred from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir to their final destination at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Fustat, in a large ceremony that was broadcast live internationally.
As Broxton explains in his review, “the whole thing was a grand, spectacular celebration of Egyptian culture, featuring light and laser displays, and parades of men and women in traditional dress accompanying these ancient rulers to their new resting places.”
Speaking about the United Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Egyptian conductor Nader Abbasi, Broxton calls Nazih’s music a “spectacular orchestral and choral glory, bold, dramatic, intense, thematically rich, and mesmerizing when combined with the visuals of these long-dead kings and queens making their journey through contemporary Cairo. There are layered vocals with men and women intoning in superb call-and-response fashion, vivid cello ostinato, swirling string figures, bold explosions of brass.
Born in 1972, Nazih is an Egyptian film and television series score composer. His career has involved composing music for a number of successful films, including Hysteria, Sleepless Nights (2003), Tito (2004), Ibrahim Labyad (2009), Elfeel El-Azraq (The Blue Elephant, 2014), The Treasure (2017), The Treasure 2 (2019), Sons of Rizk (2019), among others.
Nazih also wrote the music for Born a King, a 2019 historical coming-of-age drama film directed by Agustí Villaronga. The film was a coproduction between the UK and five Arab countries.
His scores for the television series include Sharbat Louz (Almond Nectar, 2012), Niran Sadiqa (Friendly Fire, 2013), and Al-Aahd (The Covenant, 2015).
Over the years, he collaborated with a number of well-known directors including Sherif Arafa and Marwan Hamed, with whom he worked on several occasions.
Nazih’s work for El-Asliyyin (2017) brought him the Best Music award at the Cairo National Festival for Egyptian Cinema (2018). For his contribution to the film music scene, he was also awarded the Faten Hamama Excellence Award at the 40th Cairo International Film Festival (2018).
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque’s main prayer hall housed the world’s largest carpet, a unique masterpiece with dazzling beauty and design. The carpet was hand-knotted by a group of the world’s most skilled artists and weavers.
The wool and cotton carpet was hand-crafted by around 1,200 artisans. It is 5,400 square metres, with 40 knots per 6.5 centimetres and 2.5 billion knots for the entire carpet, weighing 35 tons after completion.
Despite its enormous size, the carpet was designed as a single piece, which qualified it for the Guinness Book of Records in 2017 as the largest carpet in the world. Its knotting took approximately 12 months.
With unique harmony and integration of aesthetic elements, the carpet covers the floor of the main prayer hall and magnifies its splendour. The hand-woven carpet has an astonishing design, looking like a reflection of the above chandelier. Its background features a variety of 25 natural colours from traditional herbs, including local madar roots, pomegranate peels, leaf veins, and others.
The carpet is predominately green, bringing a sense of calm and comfort to the place. To maintain the beauty of the design, a shaving technique was used to define the rows of worshipers on the carpet.
The carpet weaving took place in three large workshops on a built-up area of 5,000 square metres. The carpet’s high-quality materials, colours, and creative design make it one of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque’s finest elements. It is carefully supervised by Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre, with its maintenance work taking more than 12 days according to thoughtful plans by specialized teams.
Monastery has three churches, most important of which is underground Church of St Paul.
The Monastery of St Paul the Anchorite, also known as the Monastery of the Tigers, is a Coptic Orthodox monastery dating back to the 4th Century CE located in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, near the Red Sea Mountains.
Located about 155 km south east of Cairo, the monastery gained the moniker the Monastery of the Tigers due to its isolated location out in the wilderness of Egypt’s desert moonscape. It covers an area of about five acres of land, and is a rectangular shape of 200 metres long by 100 metres wide.
By the 5th Century CE, the monastery was built over the cave where St Paul the Anchorite lived for more than 80 years.
St Paul, also known as St Paul of Thebes, or Anba Bola in Arabic, was a Coptic Orthodox saint born in Alexandria in 228 CE. Following his father’s death, the teenage Paul decided to become a hermit and live a simple life.
At the age of 16, he converted to Christianity and escaped Alexandria to avoid Roman persecution. According to one story, God sent Paul an angel who guided him to Egypt’s arid Western Desert, where he could live alone as a hermit.
The same story relates how God sent Paul a crow every day carrying half a loaf of bread to feed him. One day St Anthony joined Paul, and when the crow came, it had a full loaf of bread. St Paul then realised that it was God who had sent St Anthony, after 80 years of his worshipping in solitude.
As legend tells it, when St Paul died St Anthony saw two lions standing by the door of the cave in which the former had made his home. The lions approached the corpse, and used their claws dug in the ground, for St Anthony put St Paul’s body into the hole for burial.
It is for this reason that St Paul’s icon in any Coptic museum in Egypt shows him flanked by two lions with a crown above his head.
The first travel narrative associated with the monastery belongs to an anonymous pilgrim from the Italian city of Piacenza who visited the tomb of St Paul the Anchorite between the years 560 CE and 570 CE. The pilgrim is not to be confused with Antoninus Martyr.
The first monks to occupy the monastery were some of the disciples of Anthony the Great, after they learned the story of St Paul the Anchorite. It may have been occupied by Melkites for a short period, although they were followed by Egyptian and Syrian monks.
The Syrians may have had a sustained existence at the monastery, for it appears that they also occupied the monastery during the first half of the 15th Century, after which their presence disappeared. According to an isolated Ethiopian reference, the 70th Coptic Orthodox Pope, Gabriel II (1131–45 CE), was banished to the monastery of St Paul the Anchorite for three years.
Throughout its history, the monastery has suffered from several Bedouin raids, the worst of which occurred in 1484. This particularly painful attack saw all the monks murdered and the monastery plundered, following which the Bedouins occupied the building for 80 years.
The monastery was rebuilt under the patronage of Pope Gabriel VII of Alexandria (1526-69 CE), then attacked and destroyed again towards the end of the century. The monastery was deserted for 119 years, then extensively reconstructed and repopulated by monks from St Anthony’s Monastery, under the patronage of Pope John XVI of Alexandria (1676-1718 CE).
The monastery has three churches, the most important of which is the underground Church of St Paul that contains the hermit’s cave and burial place. Its walls are painted with well-preserved frescoes, and the ceiling is hung with ostrich eggs, symbols of the resurrection. The larger Church of St Michael has a gilded icon of John the Baptist’s severed head.
There is no public transportation to St Paul’s Monastery and, as the original hermit intended, it is a long journey from civilisation to get there. Visitors can take the bus from Cairo to Hurghada and get off at the turn-off for St Paul’s Monastery, following which there is a 13 km uphill trek to the monastery itself. This may sound daunting at first, but the road is well-paved and has plenty of traffic.
The Monastery of St Paul is an incredibly important site in Egypt’s long and varied history, and is the second ancient Coptic Christian monastery tucked away in the Eastern Desert.
Visitors may also view some of the manuscripts in the monastery’s possession, which includes a Coptic language version of the “Divine Liturgy”. A tour of the site may include a trip up the tower, and a glimpse of the “Pool of Mary” where Mary, the sister of Moses, washed her feet during the Exodus.
Along with the nearby Monastery of St Anthony, the Monastery of St Paul is quite possibly the most impressive structure in the desert. It is for this reason that it is included in several Egyptian desert tours.
Bader Al-Mutawa (aka) Bader Ahmed al-Mutawa. Professional Footballer. Athlete.
• Bader Al Mutawa has become the most-capped player of all time
• Striker passed the mark of former Egyptian defender Ahmed Hassan
• Kuwaiti has now played 185 times for his country
Kuwait’s FIFA Arab Cup™ qualifier against Bahrain is a hugely significant fixture, and not just because the winners will go to the tournament in Qatar. It was also the game that finally allowed Kuwaiti forward Bader Al Mutawa to become the most-capped player in the history of men’s football.
Earlier this month, during Kuwait’s unsuccessful attempt to reach the third round of AFC qualifying for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, Al Mutawa won his 184th cap to tie the record of Egyptian legend Ahmed Hassan, set on 22 May 2012 against Togo.
FIFA.com looks back at the impressive career of Al Mutawa, who has finally surpassed his Egyptian rival and set a new appearances’ record for international men’s football.
Singapore start
On 4 September 2003, newly-appointed coach Paulo Cesar Carpegiani handed Al Mutawa his debut in a 2004 Asian Cup qualifier away to Singapore. It was certainly a bold move, partly because it was the Brazilian’s first game in charge, and partly because the player being entrusted with attacking duties was only 18-years-old.
But Al Mutawa, who began his football career as a goalkeeper with Al-Qadsia before moving up front, quickly repaid Carpegiani’s trust, scoring on his debut in a 3-1 win.
Five World Cup qualifying campaigns
Al Mutawa then helped Al-Azraq (The Blue) to the final phase of the 2004 Asian Cup. He would go on to feature at that tournament in China PR, as well as the 2011 and 2015 editions, but could not prevent Kuwait exiting at the group stage on each occasion.
Six months after his international debut, the 1.75 m forward played his first FIFA World Cup™ qualifier, against Malaysia in the Germany 2006 preliminaries. Once again he rose to the occasion, opening the scoring and helping his side to victory.
Al Mutawa was a fixture in his side for the South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018 World Cup qualifiers. He also featured in Kuwait’s unsuccessful bid to reach Qatar 2022.
Breaking new ground
When the AFC qualifiers for Qatar 2022 resumed earlier this month, Al Mutawa was still three games away from Ahmed Hassan’s record. He came off the bench for the Australia and Jordan games before starting their final fixture against Chinese Taipei, where he equalled the mark set nine years previously by Hassan.
That achievement was overshadowed by Kuwait’s Qatar 2022 elimination, which saw the veteran break down in tears in the knowledge that he would not be able to end his long career with an appearance on the world stage.
However, there was some consolation for Al Mutawa, with the president of the Kuwaiti Football Federation, Sheikh Ahmed Al Yousef, paying tribute to him before the team travelled to Qatar to face Bahrain. The 36-year-old then duly made history by taking sole possession of the record for most international appearances in men’s football.
source/content: fifa.com
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Kuwait’s forward and captain Bader al-Mutawa runs after the ball during the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup qualifier match between Bahrain and Kuwait at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, on June 25, 2021. (Photo by KARIM JAAFAR / AFP) / pix; the-afc.com / fifa.com
Egyptian Producer and director Marianne Khoury was awarded France’s Legion of Honour in the degree of Chevalier (Knight).
The award was given to Khoury by the Ambassador of France to Egypt in Cairo Marc Baréty. The Legion of Honour is the highest French decoration and one of the most famous in the world. For two centuries, it has been presented on behalf of the Head of State to reward the most deserving citizens in all fields of activity.
It is highest French decoration, one of most famous in world.
Born in 1958, Khoury is a graduate of economics from both Cairo and Oxford Universities. She has directed and produced films on controversial issues such as identity, memory, and social exclusion. Khoury, who is the niece of late great Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, is a managing partner in prominent Cairo-based Misr International, one of Egypt’s production companies, which Chahine founded.
She is also a co-founder of the Panorama of The European Film. She directed her first documentary, ‘The Times of Laura’ in 1999. She then worked on ‘Women Who Loved Cinema’ in 2002 and ‘Shadows’, which tackles personal and social perceptions of the mentally ill.
Shadows premiered at the Opening of the Venice Film Festival in 2010 and won the FIPRESCI award at the Dubai Film Festival of the same year and the Italian television Rai Award in 2011 at the International Festival of Mediterranean Documentary and Current Affairs Films.
She also produced and directed ‘Let’s Talk’ in 2019, which received the Audience Award at the 41st Cairo International Film Festival. Very personal in character, the film is a conversation between her and her daughter about ordinary things in life: Death, life, illness, identity, marriage, etc.
AquaFun, anchored in the Gulf waters alongside the JBR beach, has received a Guinness World Record certificate for being the world’s largest inflatable water park.
Launched for the first time in 2016, AquaFun has now expanded to three times its original size to reach 42,400 square metres. It currently forms the words ‘I love (heart symbol) Expo 2020 Dubai’, which can be seen from aircraft flying into Dubai.
It features over 72 obstacles and operates all year round. Prices start from Dh155 for an all-day pass ticket.
Ahmed Al Khaja, CEO of Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment (DFRE), said: “To secure another world record for Dubai during such an important event in our calendar, the Dubai Shopping Festival, is a moment of real pride for the city.
Ahmed Ben Chaibah, CEO & Founder of AquaFun, said the aim with the project five years ago was to enrich the Dubai Marina and JBR areas’ offerings.
Emirate bagged yet another world record in the final week of its shopping festival.
Jordanian writer Jalal Barjas has won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his work Notebooks of the Bookseller.
The novel, published by The Arabic Institute for Research and Publishing, was named this year’s winner of the prize during an online ceremony.
Besides receiving a monetary prize of $50,000, Barjas will also be given funding towards securing an English translation of his novel.
Notebooks of the Bookseller is set in Jordan and Moscow between 1947 and 2019. It tells the story of Ibrahim, a bookseller and voracious reader, who loses his shop and finds himself homeless and diagnosed with schizophrenia. He begins to assume the identity of the protagonists of the novels he loved and commits a series of crimes, including burglary, theft and murder. He then attempts suicide before meeting a woman who changes his perspective on life.
Born in 1970, Barjas is a Jordanian poet and novelist who worked in the field of aeronautical engineering for several years. He is currently head of the Jordanian Narrative Laboratory and presents a radio programme called House of the Novel. He has also written articles for Jordanian newspapers and headed several other cultural organisations.
Barjas’s published work includes two poetry collections and four novels. His 2012 short story The Earthquakes won the Jordanian Rukus ibn Za’id ʻUzayzi Prize.
His 2013 novel Guillotine of the Dreamer won the Jordanian Rifqa Doudin Prize for Narrative Creativity in 2014. His Snakes of Hell won the 2015 Katara Prize for the Arabic Novel in the unpublished novel category, and was published by Katara in 2016. His third novel, Women of the Five Senses, was longlisted for the Ipaf in 2019.
Notebooks of the Bookseller was chosen by the Ipaf judges from a shortlist of six novels by authors from Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.
The shortlisted works were all published between July 2019 and August 2020 and included The Eye of Hammurabi by Abdulatif Ould Abdullah, The Calamity of the Nobility by Amira Ghneim, The Bird Tattoo by Dunya Mikhail, File 42 by Abdelmajid Sabbath and Longing for the WomanNext Door by Habib Selmi.
The shortlisted authors will receive $10,000 each.
source/content: thenationalnews.com
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Jordanian writer Jalal Barjas has been named the winner of this year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2021. Courtesy Shaama Oubayda Mahfoud / pix: thenationalnews.com
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.
