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
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.
Researchers from the MAScIR Foundation have developed a 100% Moroccan made molecular test for tuberculosis screening.
The test will provide health professionals with results within 30 minutes.
The test called MAScIR TB SS-LAMP “has the advantage of being precise and fast, delivering results in 30 minutes,” a press release from the foundation said on Friday.
The foundation, which is part of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, said that the Pasteur Institute of Morocco validated the test. It is also registered with the Directorate of the Medicines and Pharmacy under the Ministry of Health and Social Protection.
The test constitutes a solution that facilitates “diagnosis as close as possible to patients at a controlled cost,” the researchers said.
source/content: moroccoworldnews.com
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MAScIR Develops 100% Moroccan Tuberculosis Diagnostic Test
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
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.
Doum was founded by mother-daughter duo Samira Madrane and Yasmine Erguibi in 2017.
Samira and Yasmine Erguibi are the Moroccan mother-daughter duo who have made it their mission to make a positive impact in fashion. The designers are playing an active role in promoting sustainability and ethical practices with their accessories label, Doum.
Each design in their bag line is handmade by underprivileged women. The totes, clutches and pouches support fair trade and sustainable practices to preserve local artisanal traditions and invite local women from rural areas around Marrakech to provide for their families via the production of the bags, according to the label’s manifesto.
The brand takes its name from the Moroccan palm leaf, which is collected, pruned and then woven by the artisans. “It is a nod to our culture, heritage and craftsmanship,” explained Yasmine of the decision to name the label Doum.
Today, Doum operates its own cooperative in Morocco, Doum For Women, which currently employs 235 women artisans.
Doum For Women is the first basketry cooperative in Morocco to have obtained SEDEX certification, meaning that the organization ticks all of the boxes of ethical business practices.
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
Morocco has been continuously creating opportunities for women to integrate many fields and take the lead in positions that were once designed only for men.
Moroccan women are now represented in all fields, from sports and arts to politics and economics.
Indeed, the list is very long of inspiring, canonized Moroccan women whose bravery and infectious passion for social change remain central to the country’s history. For now, however, let’s just revel in the New Year spirit and celebrate the power of women in Morocco by looking back on the achievements of female Moroccan changemakers who made headlines in 2021.
Women in politics
This year, Moroccan politics welcomed seven new ministers in the Aziz Akhannouch government, making a third of the government’s representatives.
Nadia Fellah Alaoui, who is now the Minister of Economy and Finance, was the first woman to be appointed as the Minister of Tourism in the previous, Saadeddine El Othmani-led government.
Minister Delegate Ghita Mezzour has made a name for herself through her active engagement in Big Data, artificial intelligence (AI), and cybersecurity.
Other women at the forefront of government include: Fatima Zahra Ammor as Minister of Tourism and Handicraft, Fatima-Zahra Mansouri as Minister of Housing, Aouatif Hayar as Minister of Women, Family, and Social Integration, and Leila Benali as Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development.
Nabila Rmili, who stepped down from her new position as Minister of Heath a few days after her appointment, retains her role as the first female mayor of Casablanca. Meanwhile, Asmaa Rhlalou, a journalist and the former deputy of the National Rally of Independents party (RNI) in the House of Representatives, and Fatima-Zahra Mansouri are the mayors of Rabat and Marrakech, respectively.
Moroccan women in science
Two Moroccan scientists and researchers at Mohammed V University, Rajaa Cherkaoui El Moursli and Farida Fassi, have made it to the list of top 50 scientists worldwide according to the international 2021 AD Scientific Index. They hold 33rd and 38th place respectively.
El Moursli, a professor of nuclear physics, holds the highest-ranking in Morocco, Africa, and the Arab League, while Fassi, a professor of physics at the Faculty of Sciences, follows closely in second-ranking across the regions.
In 2015, El Moursli received the L’Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science for her contribution to proving the existence of the Higgs Boson. She is the first Moroccan woman to receive the prestigious award.
Professor Fassi contributed to the research of High Energy Physics, as well as to the Worldwide Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Computing Grid, which sets out to solve the problem of data storage for the LHC.
Moroccan women as global influencers
Sanae Lahlou was selected as a Young Global Leader in 2021 by The World Economic Forum (WEF).
She is now the director of consulting firm Mazars’ Africa Business Unit in Morocco. Lahlou works to connect African Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and creative start-ups by expanding their growth opportunities and transforming them into African and global champions.
Another Moroccan to make the headlines for her activism and commitment to provide girls around the globe with proper education is Iman Hammam.
Super Model Hammam was the first to receive the She’s the First (STF) inaugural Powerhouse of the Year Award. She is also the ambassador of STF, an organization that sponsors girls’ education in developing nations.
First Moroccan woman as General Manager of Microsoft Morocco
In November 2021, Salima Amira was appointed General Manager of Microsoft Morocco.
With 17 years of experience as a leader in competitive environments, such as Inwi and IBM, Amira firmly established herself in a field historically dominated by men when she became the first woman to hold the position of General Manager of Microsoft Morocco. The Casablanca subsidiary was founded in 1993.
Amira graduated from the Mohammadia School of Engineers in 2003 and from the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech in 2010.
Moroccans as Most Powerful Businesswomen in the MENA region
In February 2021, Forbes magazine featured four Moroccan women in the Middle East’s Power Businesswomen 2021 list.
Nezha Hayat was the first Moroccan to appear on the list, ranking eighth in the list of 50. Hayat is the CEO of Morocco’s Capital Market Authority and the president of the Africa Middle East Regional Committee at the International Organization of Securities Commissions.
The founder and CEO of AKSAL Group, Salwa Idrissi Akhannouch ranked 19th. Married to the current Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch, Salwa is an accomplished businesswoman. Her company is engaged in social community work and implemented a social project to support cultural, educational, and health projects across Morocco.
Rita Maria Zniber, the chairman and CEO of Diana Holding, occupied the 33rd rank. With over 50 years of experience in the food and beverage industry, Zniber’s company scope mainly includes agriculture, olive growing, poultry farming, trade, and distribution.
She is also the founder of the Rita Zniber Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports abandoned children in Morocco.
The 36th ranking went to Miriem Bensalah Chaqroun, the director of Holmarcom Group and the CEO of Oulmes, the largest mineral water company in Morocco. In 2019, the Moroccan businesswoman was appointed by the United Nations’ Secretary-General to join the Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) alliance.
Women in cinema and arts
The Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani was the first Moroccan in the history of the Paris Fashion Week to assume the artistic direction of the fashion show.
Bennani decorated the show space and operated the Miu Miu livestream through displaying artwork and a series of artistic interventions starring her own mother and highlighting a fine line between virtual and real life.
Born in 1988 in Morocco, Bennani attended Cooper Union College in New York where she studied visual arts.
During the lockdown last year, Bennani teamed up with documentary filmmaker Orian Barki to animate a series of videos posted on Instagram titled “2 Lizards.”
In September 2021, Morocco hosted the first female-only organized Short Film Festival in Marrakech. The event was co-organized by Moroccan artist Ramia Beladel and French national Thais Martin.
In her work, Beladel illustrates subjects of everyday life in a multi-layered way. Her aim is to make the viewer imagine and interpret her artwork without being hindered by the historical reality.
In another film accolade, in October 2021, Moroccan actress Sandia Tajeddine won the Best Actress award at the 2021 Jordan International Film Festival.
Born in 1994, the actress began her career in theater at seven years old in school plays and camps. She graduated from the Rabat-based Higher Institute of Dramatic Art and Cultural Activities in 2017 and has since played challenging roles in many films and series, such as “Banat El Assas,” “The Punch,” and “Yacout W Anbar.”
These are just a few examples of Moroccan women who made the headlines this year.
source/content: moroccoworldnews.com
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Significant Achievements by Moroccan Women in 202 / pix; moroccoworldnews.com
Natasha Karam (aka) Natacha Karam. Film Actress. Hollywood Actress.
Born in Saudi Arabia to a Lebanese father and a Northern Irish mother, actress Natacha Karam is making a name for herself in Hollywood as a character on “9-1-1 Lone Star,” the latest series created by multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winning writer Ryan Murphy.
Born in Jeddah, Karam grew up between Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain and Dubai, where she began acting.
After moving to Los Angeles, her television career kicked off with small acting stints on “Homeland” and “Silent Witness,” before she was cast as Sergeant Jasmine “Jaz” Khan in the military action drama series “The Brave,” which ran for one season.
The 27-year-old acts alongside the likes of “Lord of the Rings” actress Liv Tyler and “Aladdin” star Mena Massoud, who plays her fiancé.
source/content: arabnews.com
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The drama follows the heroics and personal lives of firefighters and other emergency responders. (AFP) / arabnews.com
Yazeed Al-Rajhi (aka) Yazeed Mohamed Al-Rajhi. Rally Driver. Saudi Businessman.
Saudi rally champion Yazeed Al-Rajhi has been honored for winning the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas title for the first time in his career.
The 40-year-old racer received his award during a prize-giving ceremony at the Carrousel du Louvre, in Paris, after becoming the first driver from the Kingdom to achieve the title in the highest rallying class, along with co-driver Michael Orr of Ireland.
The ceremony in France was attended by 800 driving champions, rising stars, and guests from around the world who saw Jean Todt, ex-president of the International Automobile Federation, hand Al-Rajhi the trophy.
Having claimed the title with Toyota Hilux, Al-Rajhi also thanked official sponsor Abdul Latif Jameel Motors for its unlimited support throughout the season.
His achievement was not only a personal one but also a landmark for Saudi motorsport, as he became the first driver from the country to be honored at the level by the FIA.
source/content: arabnews.com
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Yazeed Al-Rajhi is the winner of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas title for the first time. (Frédéric Le Floch/DPPI) / arabnews.com
