Author: ArabianRecords.org

Bahraini Artist AbdulRahim Sharif Awarded the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France’s Highest Arts Honour

The renowned painter was recently awarded the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

If there’s one thing artist AbdulRahim Sharif doesn’t like, it’s adopting a formula in his work.

And it seems that is, in fact, the winning formula, as the Bahraini painter, one of the island’s foremost talents, was recently awarded one of France’s most prestigious honours for people in the arts.

Sharif, 68, who was born in Manama in 1954, was recognised as a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. The accolade is awarded to a select number of people annually to recognise significant contributions made in the arts and literature, with the likes of Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, and actors Mads Mikkelsen, Cate Blanchett and George Clooney having received it in the past.

Who is AbdulRahim Sharif?

Sharif studied at the famous Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris under the tutelage of sculptor Marcel Gili in the 1970s, where he won both the Pierre David-Weill and La Grande Masse des Beaux-Arts prizes for drawing.

After a period developing his craft in New York at theParsons School of Design (part of The New School), he returned to Bahrain in 1982, where a health crisis led Sharif to reopen his New York portfolio and re-evaluate his work.

“It took me back to something I’d been interested in from my youth,” he tells The National. “And that was the concept of immortality. This issue has stayed with me since I was painting instinctively as a younger man. It took time for me to realise that immortality was the beating heart of my work.”

He started to incorporate surprising elements into his art, pushing back against conventional practice and even playfully calling one of his exhibitions Who Says It Doesn’t Work?, featuring pieces such as his Bathtub series, toying with viewer expectations.

“I am moving more and more towards works with physical and mental energy,” says Sharif. “This gave me the freedom to paint anything. I am against formula.”

A reputation gone global

Sharif’s reputation has gone far beyond Bahrain and even New York City.

He used to teach students who’d moved to the kingdom from Europe and America. As his students left the Gulf and returned to their home countries, they took the art and name with them.

“The banks were booming at that time and I sold a lot of my work to expats in the industry,” he says. “Then locals started coming to the workshops and getting interesting in paintings. Suddenly, there was a local market that hadn’t been there before.”

As his reputation grew abroad, so it grew at home. Sharif won the Dilmun Award in the late 1970s, as well as the Dana Grand Award twice in the 1990s.

He was also a founder of the Bahrain Art Society, helping to bring a new generation of Bahraini artists into the wider art world.

A lifetime’s reward

Now, after nearly 50 years working in the arts, Sharif has collected perhaps his most prestigious award yet with the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

“It means a lot,” says Sharif. “It’s one of the most important awards France can give. Even though I’ve had a lot of appreciation in my life, I’m very proud of this one”.

The award was presented in a small-scale ceremony at the French Embassy in Bahrain, attended by a few of Sharif’s family members and Shaikha Mai Bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, president of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities.

It was a fitting tribute to Sharif’s lifetime of work and now his mind has turned to his legacy.

Sharif and his son Hisham, also a talented artist, have recently launched a joint exhibition titled Sharif & Sharif, which runs until Wednesday, February 23, at the Bahrain Art Centre. It shows their individual creative journeys and speaking to a “common understanding and concern for humanity, especially in the face of corruption, war and violence, and a common desire for society to start again”.

Sharif also aims to use the knowledge and skill he’s accumulated to help the next generation of artists in the region. “Teaching for me is an addiction. I want to ignite this again,” he explains.

“One of my plans, if God gives me health and long life, is to establish a school where we take care of talented artists from the region.”

source/content: thenationalnews.com

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BAHRAIN

Saudis Win Three Medals at International Nordic-Baltic Physics Olympiad, Estonia

A Saudi team won three medals at an international physics Olympiad on Sunday.

Sadiq Al-Abbad from Riyadh won a silver medal, Jawad Al-Saif from the Eastern Province won a bronze medal, and Lama Al-Ahdal from Jeddah earned a bronze at the Nordic-Baltic Physics Olympiad held at Estonia’s Tallinn University of Technology.

The Olympiad was launched in 1992 with the participation of Estonia and Finland and was called the Estonia and Finland Physics Olympiad.

With Latvia joining in 2014 and Sweden joining in 2016, the name of the competition changed to the Nordic-Baltic Physics Olympiad.

Each main country participates with 20 competitors, while each guest country participates with a specified number.

This year’s Nordic-Baltic Physics Olympiad had four main and four guest countries participating.

The head of the Saudi delegation to the Nordic-Baltic Physics Olympiad, Talal Al-Rashidi, said the physics team had won three gold and silver medals in the GCC Olympiad that was held in March.

The team was participating in the European Physics Olympiad in May with five students and the Asian Physics Olympiad immediately afterward.

“Since 2010, we have achieved 472 medals in many international competitions in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, informatics, and sciences. Saudi Arabia is the first in the Arab world and the first third globally in various scientific disciplines.

source/content: arabnews.com (edited)

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This success is ‘an extension of the series of achievements in international competitions in which KSA participates.’ (Supplied)

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SAUDI ARABIA

Bright Innovations in Saudi Arabia’s Power Sector

Shining a light on bright innovations in Saudi Arabia’s power sector.

Normally, colored lights flashing around in different directions is something seen at a concert, not in an advanced engineering research lab in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Yet, watching the lab’s automated blue-light scanner move around a gas turbine part taking digital images is definitely something to talk about for Kamel Tayebi and his team.

Kamel leads the advanced metrology engineering team at the GE Gas Power Hot & Harsh (H&H) Research & Development (R&D) Center of Excellence, located at the GE Manufacturing & Technology Center (GEMTEC) campus. The site includes one of the largest GE Gas Power turbine service centers in the world.

His team, which includes Saudi nationals, supports the repair center with new and innovative ways to assess the condition of gas turbine components in terms of fitness for use. Their other research work on blade vibration sensors helps to identify cracks or further weaknesses that must be corrected.

The Center’s digital blue-light scanner, mounted on a programmable robotic arm, is the only one in the Middle East and Africa.

The team has also been active in pushing the envelope of the application of manual scanners to initiate new ways of serving repair processes, notably for rotors and fixtures. This pioneering work was selected to be presented at the Advanced Manufacturing & Repair for Gas Turbines conference , one of the most prestigious international mechanical engineering conferences hosted by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

An example of the Saudi-based R&D team’s approach was to explore the benefits of mounting the scanner on the robotic arm.

The solution allows GEMTEC technicians to examine more parts faster, while still maintaining the impeccable reliability of the scanning results. This helps the facility reduce turnaround times, which in turn, can contribute to faster deliveries for outages at power plants.

A major contributor to this accomplishment is Badi AlQuzayz, a young Saudi engineer who has used this technology on thousands of turbine parts. Here, he is involved in projects not being done anywhere else,” Tayebi said.

Tayebi, who is Canadian, formed the nucleus of the team with two Saudi engineers – one with a graduate degree from the UK and another fresh graduate from King Saud University. A fourth researcher holds an engineering degree from India.

The Hot & Harsh R&D Center, which houses the advanced metrology research team, was established to address the extreme conditions experienced by gas turbines in regions such as the Middle East, Africa, and other parts of the world.

The work done by the metrology team and, more generally, by the Hot & Harsh R&D Center, supports key goals of Saudi Vision 2030, including fostering homegrown innovation, building Saudi workforce capabilities, and deepening the Kingdom’s industrial sector..

source/content: zawya.com (edited)

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Laboratory in Dammam, Saudi Arabia

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SAUDI ARABIA

Egypt Begins Restoring Mideast’s Oldest Synagogue

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities has started a project to restore Cairo’s Temple of Ben Ezra.

“It is of great importance as it is the oldest synagogue in Egypt and the Middle East,” said the council’s Secretary-General Mostafa Waziri.

Osama Talaat, head of the council’s Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities Sector, said: “The temple was named after Ezra, the religious scholar and Jewish philosopher.”

The restoration work will include cleaning walls, insulating the roof and treating cracks.

The last restoration work was done in 1991.

source/content: arabnews.com (edited)

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The restoration work will include cleaning walls, insulating the roof and treating cracks. (Supplied)

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EGYPT

Lebanese Grand Master Fadi Al-Andari Wins ‘Arab Innovation, Excellence Cup Award’

World Champion Grand Master Fadi Al-Andari, receives the Cup of Arab Innovation and Excellence for the year 2022 in Cairo – an atmosphere filled with patriotism and international cooperation between Arab brothers, in order to consolidate human values. Under the supervision of the Afro-Asian Federation of Modern Cinema and the participation of the Arab Federation for Lebanese Physical Culture and the Royal Crown Club, in cooperation with the Middle East Institute for Development, Consultation and Development and the International University for Creativity and Human Sciences in accordance with the standards of the international program.

A group of distinguished and influential personalities in the Arab world were honored, within the framework of the great conference that was held at the Civic Education Center building at the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Cairo, in the presence of the best distinguished personalities in the Arab world: Professor Fawzi Al-Khodari, President of the Arab Federation for Physical Culture, Ibrahim Khalil Sharara, the Lebanese Consul, representing the Lebanese Embassy in Cairo.

They honored the Lebanese World professional Champion Grand Master Fadi Al- Andari, the legend in Muay , who was called “The Miracle of Sports, and who won the Innovation Cup and the Golden Medal of Excellence for 2022.”

Fadi Al-Andari won the title of “The Legend” in “Muay Thai” after his victory in the second round by “knockout” over the Thai player “Piset” who was half his age, also andari was suffering from a broken leg in the first round.

He was called the “miracle” in sports in the year 2019 after winning in a short time various awards of sports titles in natural bodybuilding that held in South Korea (WBPSF) after 24 hours of Muay Thai, WFF, martial arts and martial arts (WPKA, WML , WMO and WMF) championships. Major General Staff Harb Ahmed Zaghloul Mahran along with a group of public, artistic, sports and media personalities also attended.

They were headed by the able artist actor Samira Abdel Aziz and the journalist Abdel Rahman El Sheikh, president of the Afro-Asian Federation of Modern Cinema, Ambassador Dr. Reda Al-Senussi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Middle East Institute, Ambassador Dr. Samia Al-Sadiq, Dr. Raafat Al-Khamsawy, President of the Royal Crown Club, Dr. Dalia Al- Khodari, and Ambassador Dr. Safaa Al-Shawaf, General Coordinator of the Conference. The conference was held under the auspices and supervision of the Conference President, Dr. Ahmed Al-Shawaf, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Arab Journalists and Media Persons, and the President of the Arab Innovation and Excellence Cup Award Conference.

source/content: arabtimesonline.com

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World Champion Grand Master Fadi Al-Andari, receiving the Cup of Arab Innovation and Excellence Award.

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LEBANON

Saudi Arabia Leads the Arab World in Registered Patents since 2015

The Saudi Ministry of Education joined the international community in celebrating World Creativity and Innovation Day, which takes place on April 21 every year and was established by the United Nations “to raise awareness of the role of creativity and innovation in all aspects of human development.”

According to a report by the SPA, Saudi Arabia registered 1,871 patents between 2015 and 2021 — more than any other country in the Arab world. Eighty-one percent of those patents were registered in the US.

This, according to the SPA, “highlights the creativity and innovation of students, faculty members and researchers in Saudi universities.”

There are 47 centers for innovation and entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia, and more than 135 centers of excellence and research, all of which have contributed to the country’s drive for innovation.

The Ministry of Education has announced that it is working on a set of initiatives to transform these patents into “investable projects to enhance society and bring about tangible developments for the benefit of the Kingdom,” the SPA reported.

source/content: arabnews.com

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SAUDI ARABIA

Morocco’s Youness Mustafa Gharbi Wins Quran Recitation Skill, Scent of Speech (Otr Elkalam)’ Category in the ‘Saudi International Holy Quran Competition ‘ 2022

Gharbi is one of a number of Moroccans who have won similar prizes.

Youness Gharbi is the latest in a list of other Moroccans to have claimed a prize for his Quran recitation skills, this time in Saudi Arabia.

Visually impaired Gharbi won the  “Otr Elkalam” competition on Wednesday, with a prize of SAR 5 million ($1.3 million).

He received his prize during a ceremony celebrating the completion of the international Quran reciting competition whose name is Arabic for the fragrance of speech. 

The Chairman of the board of directors of Saudi’s general entertainment authority , Turki Al-Seikh, delivered the prize to Youness Gharbi and another British contestant Mohamed Ayoub who came in second place. 

Mohamed Ayoub received an award of a little over half a million dollars.

In the call to prayer category, a Turkish contestant came in first place, Muhsin Kara, receiving SAR 2 million ($533,200), while another Turkish contestant Albijan Celik came in second place, winning a prize of SAR1 million ($266,600). 

Saudi contestant Anas Al-Rahili came in fourth place with a SAR250,000 ($66,650) award.

During the ceremony, the event organizers announced that the “Otr Elkalam” competition will open its doors for international Quran reciters during Ramadan next year. 

The “Otr Elkalam” competition was organized by the Saudi government’s General Entertainment Authority this month, to coincide with  Ramadan.

Moroccans are no strangers to winning  Quran reciting awards. In 2020, Five Moroccans won a Quran reciting competition award in Abu Dhabi during a virtual ceremony. 

Nearly all prizewinners of the Abu Dhabi competition were Moroccans.

Moroccan Fatima-Zahrae Mrabet claimed the first place in the women’s “All Nationalities” category, and Moroccan Kaoutar Zribi and Chaimae Lchab trailed behind respectively in second and third place.

Moroccan men equally distinguished themselves at the ceremony, with Anas Mhamdi ranking first in the men’s “All Nationalities” category and Abdellah Bela ranking third within a different category.

source/content: moroccoworldnews.com

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MOROCCO

Fatima Albanawi, Saudi Actress, Producer and Filmmaker

Fatima Albanawi is an actress, producer, and filmmaker, who has performed in several drama, horror, romance and comedy productions.


Albanawi completed her undergraduate degree at Effat University in psychology in 2011, and received her master’s degree from Harvard University in theological studies in 2015.


In 2016, Albanawi was recognized for her role in the award-winning feature film “Barakah Meets Barakah.” The film won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlin International Film Festival, and was also the Saudi Arabian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards.


She has also played a Parisian actress from the seventies in the feature film “Roll’em,” a selfish theater superstar in the “Bashar” series, and appeared in the Netflix series “Paranormal.”


Albanawi has traveled to multiple countries and performed around the world including in Buenos Aires and at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.


Early on in her career, Albanawi founded “The Other Story” project. This is a book with the raw and unedited stories of Jeddah’s residents and visitors.


The actress had earlier served as a consultant at the Islamic Development Bank for six months, where she worked on developing a policy for the empowerment of women at the bank and its member countries. In 2018, Albanawi was selected as one of Time Magazine’s Young Generation Leaders, a series about the young people impacting the world. She was selected for her work in sharing the stories of people in Saudi society.


In the same year, she narrated and performed in a short film titled “A Blink of an Eye,” which shared the stories of “five normal lives that have changed or would change in a blink of an eye.”


In 2020, she wrote and directed her first short film “Until We See Light,” which became part of the feature “Becoming” in collaboration with the Red Sea International Film Festival.


Albanawi also co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the “Al-Shak” serial drama, a Shahid.net original. The storyline was shot completely from home during the global pandemic.


In 2021, Albanawi starred in the Egyptian thriller series “60 Minutes,” which premiered on Shahid.net, recording the highest viewership in Egypt.

source/content: arabnews.com

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Fatima Albanawi
Fatima Albanawi

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SAUDI ARABIA

Egypt’s Suhayr Al-Qalamawi, FIRST Woman to Obtain a Doctorate in Literature in MENA region

Suhayr al-Qalamawi is an icon of literature and politics in the Arab world in general and in Egypt in particular.

She greatly influenced cultural life in Egypt and the Arab world and it was her idea to establish the Cairo International Book Fair.

Qalamawi was born in Cairo, in a family that focused on educating their daughters. Her father was a surgeon and her mother spoke various languages. This upbringing helped her complete her education, and she graduated from the American College for Girls in 1928.

Her father also played a major role in developing her linguistic and cultural skills. She excelled reading the holy Qur’an with her father. Qalamawi’s father also owned a library where she was able to feed her infinite hunger for reading.

She was able to benefit from her father’s vast library of works at an early age, and it seems that writers such as Taha Hussein, Rifa’a al-Tahtawi and Ibn Iyas greatly contributed to her literary talent and shaped her voice as a writer.

Her father encouraged her to specialize in Arabic literature, and she became the first young girl to attend Cairo University and the first woman among 40 men to study Arabic literature. After obtaining a Master of Arts, she then received a scholarship to conduct research in Paris for her Ph.D. in 1941. After the completion of her doctoral thesis, she became the first woman to obtain a doctorate from Cairo University.

During her educational career, she was influenced by a number of personalities, most notably the dean of Arabic literature Taha Hussein, who was head of the Arabic language department and editor-in-chief of the Cairo University Magazine at the time. He made her assistant editor-in-chief of the magazine in 1932, and Qalamawi became the first woman to obtain a permit to practice journalism in Egypt.

Suhayr al-Qalamawi started her career after graduation as the first female lecturer at Cairo University in 1936. Soon she became a university professor and later the head of the Arabic language department between 1958-1967, in addition to becoming the president of the Egyptian Feminist Union.

She became the president of the Egyptian General Authority for Cinema, Theater and Music in 1967 and the head of the Child Culture Society in 1968. Qalamawi was also the head of the administration of the General Egyptian Book Organization, from 1967 to 1971, and the head of the censorship authority from 1982 to 1985.

In addition, Qalamawi was able to make outstanding contributions within the cultural field. During her tenure as head of the General Egyptian Book Organization, she worked to expand the range of readers, encourage young writers, and advance the book industry in 1967. From here, she established the first book fair in the Middle East, which is the Cairo International Book Fair in 1967.

Suhayr al-Qalamawi’s contributions were not limited to the cultural community, but she also contributed to the struggle of women, in order to preserve their rights through her literary works, in addition to her participation in many conferences on Arab women, and in 1960, she was the president of the International Conference on Women.

Furthermore, Qalamawi’s journey was also full of political work, and the beginning was when she entered politics as a member of Parliament in 1958 , and was nominated again in the period from 1979 to 1984.

Qalamawi’s career was crowned with a number of awards, as she was awarded the Arabic Language Academy Award in 1954 and the State Appreciation Award in Youth Literature. She also received the State Encouragement Award, the State Appreciation Award in Literature, The First Class Order of the Republic, the Medal of Achievement, and an Honorary Doctorate from the American University in Cairo.

After an enriching career, Suhayr al-Qalamawi passed away in 1997.

source/content: egypttoday.com (edited)

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EGYPT

Moroccan Origin Nora Bloza Entrepreneur of Saudi Dates from Madinah , Makes them Available in Hesse, Germany

Nora Bloza, Founder & CEO – Nakheel Fruits gmbh, Germany

 Dates have always been omnipresent in Nora Blouza’s life. The 37-year-old is from southern Morocco, where her late grandfather once owned a date plantation. “Dates would always be in the house,” she told Arab News.

When Blouza’s Dutch-Moroccan husband came to Germany due to his work in 2018, she followed him with their three children after having lived in the Netherlands for 17 years.

“Originally we planned to just stay for three years,” she said. But the coronavirus pandemic thwarted the family’s plans.

It was during Ramadan last year that her daughter brought up a topic that gave Blouza a new idea. “She reminded me of the high amounts of dates people consume, especially during Ramadan, of the many different types and tastes.”

It was then that Blouza had the idea of launching her own date business in Germany and importing large amounts. Although she was raised on dates, the business itself was something new to her.

As Blouza is Moroccan, her home country and its neighbors Algeria and Tunisia were the first that came to mind as potential suppliers, but none of them met her criteria.

“Saudi Arabia has many different and often unique types of dates,” she said. “Ajwa, for example, is something that only grows in the city of Madinah.”

Blouza undertook research and found a supplier that suited her ideas best: Nakheel Alya, a company in Madinah.

Despite that, it “met my criteria,” said Blouza, who fulfilled her dream and launched her business, Nakheel Fruits, in August 2021.

Boxes of different products such as natural dates, date cookies, and dates covered in chocolate and filled with almonds or walnuts, fill the company’s warehouse in Eppstein, a town in the state of Hesse at the edge of the Taunus mountains.

“We mostly supply supermarkets and individual clients that order our products via our website,” said Blouza

While individual clients are from all over Germany, the supermarkets are mostly from Hesse, with demand rising during Ramadan.

She hopes that her business will grow and expand nationwide. “My dream is that we will develop further and that German customers will discover the quality and diversity of Saudi dates and date products.”

www.nalya.de

source/content: arabnews.com (edited)

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When Nora Blouza’s Dutch-Moroccan husband came to Germany due to his work in 2018, she followed him with their three children. (Supplied)

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GERMAN / NETHERLANDS / MOROCCAN