Lebanese Film Director Jessy Moussallem

Jessy Moussallem. Women Filmmaker. Story Teller.

Written and directed “Roman’ a music video for the band Mashrou’ Leila. Followed up with a couple more directorial assignments.

Awards / Honours:

  • Won – Gold Screen for Changing The World Frame By Frame at Young Directors’ Award (2015)
  • Won – Next Director at D&AD

_____________

pix: lbbonline.com

____________

LEBANON

Radwa Rostom – Founder and CEO of ‘Hand Over’, a Non-Profit Sustainable Green Enterprise , Egypt

Radwa Rostom. Engineer. Social Entrepreneur. Changemaker.

Founder and CEO of ‘Hand Over’.

A non-profit dedicated to develop models to reduce the cost of construction by 50 percent or more. Ensuring construction models to bringing sustainable buildings to Egypt’s masses.

Education:

  • Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering (Civil) – Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Awards/ Honours:

  • An Ashoka Fellow
  • Ranked by Arabian Business Magazine as No.30 of the 100 most powerful Arabs Under 40 2015)
  • Awarded a grant from the World Bank for the ‘Women for Resilient Cities’ competition (2015)
  • Winner ‘Tamayouz Excellence Award’ for Women in Architecture (2021)

__________

Echoing Green Finalist Portrait / pix: fellows.echoinggreen.org

________

EGYPT

First Saudi Female Skating Team

The first female Skating National Team of Saudi Arabia was founded in 2018.

The President of Saudi Skating Team is Zaher Al-Asiri, its coach is Abdul Aziz Al-Qahtani and the teams’ Media and Public Relations Officer is Aljawhara Minwer.

The Saudi Skating League was also established.

_______________

The Saudi Skating League had organized more than 60 local female tournaments. The players are aged between 13 and 35. The national team has 32 members. (Supplied) / pix: arabnews.com

_________________

SAUDI ARABIA

Asrar Damdam and Lama Al-Abdi honored by L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Middle East Regional Young Talents Program

 Two Saudi Women Asrar Damdam and Lama Al-Abdi recently won awards from the L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Middle East Regional Young Talents Program for their work.

Dr. Asrar Damdam, was honored in the Ph.D. students’ category for her role in the development of a pump meant to revolutionize the way a healthy heartbeat is regulated — combining medicine, electrical engineering and electro-physics.

 Dr. Lama Al-Abdi in recognition of her research on chromatin — a substance within chromosomes consisting of DNA and protein — and the regulation of genes in relation to vision loss.

______________

pix: twitter ( L t R) Dr. Lama AlAbdi and Dr. Asrar Damdam

_________________

SAUDI ARABIA

Winners of Arab Journalism Awards : December 2020

In the virtual presence of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Dubai Press Club held a virtual ceremony to honour the winners of the 19th Arab Journalism Award.

President of the Dubai Press Club and Secretary General of the Arab Journalism Award Mona Al Marri, members of the Board of Arab Journalism Award and a host of editors in chief, journalists and media leaders attended the virtual event.

The winners represented daily newspapers, magazines, online web portals and various media organisations from the Arab world. 

The winners were announced at the 19th Arab Media Forum.

The 11 winners of the Arab Journalism Award 2020 are:

•    Media Personality of the Year: Nayla Tueni, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Annahar newspaper, Lebanon

•    Best Column Award: Othman Mirghani, Editor-in-Chief of the independent newspaper Al-Tayar, Sudan

•    Political Journalism Award: Mohamed Amin Al Masri from Al-Ahram newspaper, Egypt

•    Economic Journalism Award: Al Khaleej newspaper, UAE

•    Investigative Reporting Award: Jamal Jouhar from Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper

•    Press Interview Award: Mohammed Mansour from Al-Roeya newspaper, UAE

•    Cultural Journalism Award: Tareq Al Taher from Akhbar Al-Adab magazine, Egypt

•    Sports Journalism Award: Motaz El Shamy from Al-Ittihad newspaper, UAE

•    Photojournalism Award: Saber Nooraldin from the European Pressphoto Agency

•    Young Journalist Award:
–    Samar Saleh from El-Watan newspaper, Egypt
–    Abdul-Samad Edinadin from Bayane Al-Yaoume newspaper, Morocco
–    Ahmed Atef from Al-Dostor newspaper, Egypt

•    Smart Journalism Award: Youm7 newspaper, Egypt

This year, the General Secretariat of the Arab Journalism Award decided to host the award ceremony virtually due to the current global challenges related to COVID-19 and the travel restrictions imposed in some countries.

_____________

pix: wam.ae

______________

Oman’s Jokha Alharthi – First Arab Woman to Win Man Booker International Prize

Omani Author Jokha Alharthi became the first Arab Woman Arabic language novelist to win Man Booker International Prize 2019 for the novel ‘Celestial Bodies’.

The award also carries a cash prize of GBP 50,000 (USD 64,000).

The novel ‘ Sayyidat el-Qamar ‘ published in Arabic was translated into English by US academic, now UK based translator Marilyn Booth who teaches Arabic literature at Oxford University. Celestial Bodies was published by Sandstone Press, Scotland.

Dr. Jokha Alharthi studied Arabic poetry and did her Ph.D in Classical Arabic literature in Edinburgh and is now a Professor teaching at the Sultan Al Qaboos University, Muscat.

Alharthi has published three collections of short stories, three children’s books, and three novels (ManamatSayyidat el-Qamar and Narinjah)

  • Winner of the Sultan Qaboos Award for Culture, Arts and Literature, for her novel Narinjah (Bitter Orange) in 2016. 

___________

Omani author Jokha Al Harthi wins the Man Booker International Prize for 2019 / bbc.com //AFP

________

OMAN

Dr. Nawf AlGublan, Saudi Medical Professional Frontliner Saving Lives In The U.S

Physician Dr. Nawf Al-Gublan contributes to saving lives in the United States, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the 2nd largest teaching hospital at Harvard Medical School, and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical District in Boston.

When the coronavirus pandemic started spreading rapidly in the United States, the Saudi Arabian Nephrology Specialist Dr. Nawf al-Gublan decided she had to stay in the country to help her coworkers in Boston battle the outbreak.

__________

pix: yasmina.com

______________________

USA / SAUDI ARABIA

Nayla Tueini Wins Media Personality of the Year At The 19th Arab Journalism Awards : December 2020

Nayla Tueini , the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Lebanon’s Daily – Annahar was chosen as Media Personality of the Year at the 2020 Arab Media Forum, held virtually from Dubai, for her strong and steady leadership of Annahar.

December 23rd, 2020.

__________

Nayla Tueni holds a blank edition of her newspaper during a news conference in Beirut. (Reuters) / pix: arabnews.com

____________

LEBANON

Leila Ben Youssef – Record Holding Athlete – Pole Vault

Leila Ben Youssef (aka) Leila Maryam Ben Youssef. Track Athlete. Pole Vault.

Currently: Dr. Leila M. Ben-Youssef, MD – Emergency Medicine

Awards / Honours:

  • Gold Medal – All African Games, Algiers, Algeria (2007)
  • Gold Medal – Pan African Games, Egypt (2007)
  • Gold Medal – African Championship, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2008)
  • Represented Tunisian National Track & Field Team, Summer Olympics Beijing

Education :

  • Masters Degree – Medical Anthropology, Stanford University

Grand daughter of Tunisian Politician Salah Ben Youssef

_______________

pix: amchamjrtbs.com

_________________________________________________

AMERICAN / TUNISIAN / AMERICAN-TUNISIAN

Halima Benbouzza – Biotechnology and Plant Geneticist. Scientist.

Dr. Halim Benbouzza . Scientist. Academic. Researcher – Genetic Diversity, Plant Breeding, Bioethics, Biosecurity.

Posts:

  • Director – National Biotechnology Research Centre
  • Chair of Joint-Committee between Health and Biology sector – appointed by Algeria Government (2011)
  • Chair of the Guidance Committee of the Pharmacy and Biotechnology Project- Algeria. Appointed by the Prime Minister (2013)
  • Professor (Agronomic Science), University of Batna 1, Batna

Awards and Honours:

  • ‘Women in Science’ – Hall of Fame Program, honoured by U.S. State Department (2014)
  • ‘Next Einstein Forum’ – one of the 6 best female researchers contributing to advancing science in africa (2010)

Education :

  • Ph.D – Agro Biotech Gembloux, Belgium
  • Masters in Biotechnology – Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liege, Belgium
  • Graduate – University of Batna’s Faculty of Engineering, Algeria

______________

pix: twitter.com

___________

ALGERIA