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Khulood Al Zaabi, the first Emirati female football referee to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), said she is delighted to join the AFC’s elite referee list, noting that her new status comes with great responsibilities that include showcasing the leadership of Emirati women globally.
Al Zaabi’s appointment came after she passed several referee training courses.
In an interview with the Emirates News Agency (WAM), Al Zaabi said that being the first woman in the list of eight referees, which include Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, Ammar Al Junaibi, Omar Al Ali, Adel Al Naqbi, Yahya Al Mulla, Sultan Muhammad Salih and Ahmed Issa Darwish, is a great honour.
She also highlighted her gratitude for the support of Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the UAE Football Association.
Speaking about her ambitions, Al Zaabi explained that she aims to referee games at the World Cup and the UAE Pro League, noting that she can effectively referee men’s games and has self-confidence.
Regarding her participation as a video assistant referee (VAR) in some UAE Pro League games, Al Zaabi said, “During the previous season, I participated as a VAR in two matches in the ADNOC Pro League last year, which aligns with my focus on enhancing my work and training to gain experience.”
Al Zaabi encouraged young girls to play sports and achieve excellence in a sport.
Regarding her vision of women’s football in the UAE, she explained that the sector is continuing its growth, especially with the great support provided by the UAE Football Association, which serves to ensure creating a major transformation in the sector.
As visitors arrive at the end of the impressive first Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale their attention is drawn by a gigantic yellow arrow nearly 20 meters long on the wall.
If they look closer at the artwork, titled “E Pluribus Unum – A Modern Fossil,” they can see the numerous cracks in the body of the arrow.
The artwork was created by Tunis-born, Berlin-based artist Nadia Kaabi-Linke, who this year won the fourth Ithra Art Prize. Each year the prize, which was set up in 2017, gives up to $100,000 for the creation of a new artwork that becomes part of Ithra’s permanent collection.
Kaabi-Linke’s massive work presents a contemplative way to look at the pandemic, notably, the decline in commercial air traffic during 2020, which, according to the artist, raises questions as to how humanity measures its progress and environmental awareness versus economic profit.
“The work is meant as a metaphor for modern times,” she told Arab News. “It is particularly relevant to 2020 because all of the airplanes in the world stopped flying.”
The artist relates it also to Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, which has been shut for around 13 years and is used as a camp accommodating up to 7,000 refugees. “I saw a parallel in this because we were all grounded, all of humanity and I think it is an exceptional moment in human history,” she added. “I also wanted to draw the parallel between the aviation industry and the economy. The symbol of economic growth is the rising arrow.”
The cracks, explains Kaabi-Linke, are there because it represents an abandoned airport. The work is a print made from an existing arrow that shows where the planes land and where they take off. “It brings you back to the earth as the cracks in the arrow also refer also to the idea of a cracked earth. The question that the work asks is: Do we want to stay in a world as we know it that has no future or do, we want to take the risk to go to something that is unknown but that probably has a future?”
“At Ithra, our commitment to contemporary art is embodied in this art prize,” Ashraf Fagih, head of programming at Ithra told Arab News. “This year is different for two reasons: First, we have opened up the prize to 22 Arab countries and not just artists in Saudi. Secondly, we are collaborating with the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale. To us this has special significance because it means the Ithra Art Prize came back home.”
The prize was previously unveiled during Art Dubai.
“As a distinctive landmark in the Saudi art scene, and in integration with its most prominent event ever, the prize’s artwork was unveiled during the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale,” said Fagih. After the biennale the artwork will travel back to Ithra in Dhahran in the Eastern Province to become part of the institution’s permanent collection.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Ashraf Fagih, head of programming at Ithra with Ithra Prize winner artist Nadia Kaabi-Linke. (Supplied)
Bahrain has won the chairmanship seat of the Committee on Safeguards, a subcommittee of the Council of Trade in Goods at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Maryam Abdulaziz Al Doseri, Commercial Attaché of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism at Bahrain’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations and other organizations in Geneva, is now the Chairperson of the Committee on Safeguards.
On May 23, WTO members reached consensus on the names of the chairpersons for the 14 subsidiary bodies that report to the Council for Trade in Goods.
The Committee on Safeguards (the Safeguards Committee) was established to administer the Safeguards Agreement. It oversees the operation of the Agreement and is responsible for the surveillance of Members’ commitments.
Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani extended his heartfelt congratulations to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and to His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, on Bahrain’s achievement.
“The success of Bahrain in becoming the chair of the Committee on Safeguards is a source of immense pride as it affirms the unlimited support to the Kingdom of Bahrain,” the minister said.
“It reflects the ambitious and unprecedented visions to chart a strong trade based on justice, transparency, diversity and innovation under the generous support of HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the follow-up of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister. This success is a strong motivation for further achievements and accomplishments by the Kingdom of Bahrain.”
Olympian Athlete Nazareth Woldu registered new record finishing the race in 21 minutes and 28 seconds at the Seoul International Marathon (Daegu) that was held today, 03 April in Seoul, South Korea.
Athlete Nazareth improves the record that was held by herself with 7 minutes.
Moreover, Olympian Athlete Nazareth has improved the 10 km national record that was held by Athlete Simret Sultan since 2006.
Athlete Nazareth has also improved her national marathon record for the fourth time including at the Beirut Marathon 2018, Gold-Coast Marathon 2019, Australia, Milano Marathon 2021 and at this year’s Seoul Marathon 2022.
According to her coach, Livingston Abraha, Athlete Nazareth is preparing to take part at the International Athletics competition that will be held this year in the United States.
The Mereb Setit Athletics Training Center has produced many Olympian Athletes including Nazareth Woldu and Rahel Daniel.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Information, Eritrea.
Women referees will officiate matches at the men’s World Cup for the first time in Qatar this year, the sport’s governing body FIFA announced on Thursday.
Three women referees and three women assistant referees will be part of the global showpiece event in Qatar, which will be held from Nov. 21 to Dec. 18.
Referees Stephanie Frappart from France, Salima Mukansanga from Rwanda and Japan’s Yoshimi Yamashita, as well as assistant referees Neuza Back from Brazil, Karen Diaz Medina from Mexico and American Kathryn Nesbitt have all been called up.
A total of 36 referees, 69 assistant referees and 24 video match officials have been chosen by FIFA for the tournament.
“This concludes a long process that began several years ago with the deployment of female referees at FIFA men’s junior and senior tournaments,” said Pierluigi Collina, FIFA Referees Committee chairman.
“They deserve to be at the FIFA World Cup because they constantly perform at a really high level, and that’s the important factor for us.
“As always, the criteria we have used is ‘quality first’ and the selected match officials represent the highest level of refereeing worldwide.”
Frappart became the first female official to be involved in European Championship matches after UEFA included her in the list of referees for the tournament last year.
Youssra Zekrani took home a silver medal after reaching the final stage of Africa’s Fencing Championship in Casablanca.
Zekrani reached the final stages of the continental tournament, before losing to Egyptian contestant Noura Mhamad, earning her the silver medal.
In the game against the Egyptian, Zekrani lost by nine points to 15.
Zekrani, who ranked as the 91st best player in the world, faced and eliminated Algeria’s Chaymae Nihar Kamar and Egypt’s Yara Charkaoui in the quarterfinals.
While facing Algeria’s Kamar, the Moroccan athlete won by an impressive margin of 15 to 10. She equally scored a no less impressive score against Egypt’s Charkaoui, winning with nine to 15.
This is not the first time Zekrani makes national headlines for winning a tournament. The Moroccan athlete brought home a bronze medal at the 2016 African Championships. She competed at the Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.
More than two years later, Zekrani claimed another bronze medal at the African Games in 2019.
This year’s fencing tournament in Casablanca saw the participation of several other Moroccan female contestants, including Manal Kermaoui and Ilham Belefkih.
The Casablanca tournament took place on June 15-19, under the patronage of Morocco’s King Mohammed VI. It saw the participation of athletes from across the continent, with 233 registered participants.
If you never realized that Alia Shawkat has Arab heritage, there’s a reason for that: The Iraqi-American actress — who has been stealing pretty much every scene she has appeared in since 1999, when she was 10 years old — rose to fame at a time when Hollywood was much less receptive to non-white identities.
Now, though, the 33-year-old star is entering the next phase of her career, one in which her heritage will be front and center.
“It’s interesting, because when I started acting, I always had to say I was half-whatever the role was. I would say I was half-Spanish, or half-French, just trying to blend in. I was always seen as ‘too ethnic’ when I was young,” Shawkat tells Arab News. “Now my ethnicity is a strength, because the conversation is shifting. It’s funny to watch actors actually talk about where they’re coming from, or playing roles that they’re actually connected to, when I grew up having to basically hide it.”
Not that it ever slowed Shawkat down. While she is perhaps still best-known for playing Maeby Fünke on the acclaimed cult comedy “Arrested Development,” which also reinvigorated or launched the careers of Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Michael Cera and Tony Hale, she has been an inimitable presence across dozens of acclaimed independent films, before becoming the star and a key creative voice in the series “Search Party” (2016-2022), a pitch-black comedy and noir crime drama hybrid that defines Shawkat’s unique spirit better than anything has thus far.
She didn’t have to search too hard to find inspiration for the show. “My father is Middle Eastern, and he owns a club in Palm Springs. So that’s the show,” she deadpanned to the New Yorker last fall.
While “Desert People” will tackle that by putting Arab characters at its center, Shawkat took “The Old Man” in part because of the way that it, too, dives into righting some of the wrongs that were committed in the post-9/11 landscape.
Saudi Arabia’s first flight with an all-female crew took off this weekend May 2022, completing a short domestic journey and passing a milestone for women’s empowerment, officials said.
The flight was operated by flyadeal, the budget subsidiary of flag carrier Saudia.
“For the first time in Saudi aviation history,” the airline wrote on Twitter on Friday, “#flyadeal operated the first flight with an all-female crew, the majority of which are Saudis, by the newest A320 aircraft. Flight 117, flew from #Riyadh to #Jeddah.”
Most of the seven-member crew hail from Saudi Arabia, according to spokesman Emad Iskandarani, including the first officer, Yara Jan, who is also reportedly the youngest Saudi female pilot.
The country’s civil aviation authority, which confirmed the announcement, has been working towards expanding roles for women in the sector for years.
In 2019, Yasmeen Al Maimani , then 29, became the first female first officer to fly a mainstream commercial plane in the kingdom.
The Saudi woman piloted Nesma Airlines flight ATR 72-600 from Hail to Al Qassim on June 9.
“I thought it was going to be hard, being a female pilot based in Hail but it hasn’t been,” she said at the time. “I feel so comfortable with everyone else here, and the way they treat me. It’s like they are all my brothers, it’s a good feeling.”
Last year, figures showed female participation in the kingdom’s workforce rose to 33 per cent at the end of 2020, from 19 per cent in 2016, according to data from the General Authority for Statistics.
Saudi Arabia aims to generate 356 billion riyals ($95bn) of investment into its aviation sector by 2030.
Its National Aviation Sector Strategy is working to increase connections from Saudi Arabia to 250 destinations, reaching 330 million passengers.
The kingdom also plans to launch another airline to complement its existing national carriers, including Saudia, and to build a major international airport in Riyadh, in addition to eight more regional airports.
The translators of books about culture, physics and data mining are among the latest recipients of the prestigious King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Awards for Translation.
This year’s event, covering works published in 2021, marks the 10th anniversary of the awards. There were six categories and the winners, chosen by the event’s board of trustees, were announced on Monday.
Izz ddeen Khattabi Riffi’s translation from the original French of “Beyond Nature and Culture” by Philippe Descola took the award for works in the humanities category translated into Arabic. It was shared by Abdelnour Kharraki for his translation of “Data Mining for the Social Sciences: An Introduction” by Paul Attewell, David Monaghan and Darren Kwong, originally published in English.
The award for institutions went to the publishing and translation department of Obeikan Company, and to Al-Arabi Publishing & Distribution.
There were also two winners in category for works in the natural sciences translated into Arabic, both for books originally published in English: Dr. Sausan Hassan Al-Sawwaf and Dr. Laila Saleh Babsil for their translation of “Physics in Biology and Medicine” by Paul Davidovits; and Yahya Khlaif and Abdullatif Al-Shuhail for their translation of “Introduction to Carbon Capture and Sequestration” by Berend Smit, Jeffrey A Reimer and Curtis M. Oldenburg.
Three awards were presented in the category of Individual Efforts in Translation, to Hamza Qablan Al-Mozainy from Saudi Arabia, Murtazo Saydumarov from Uzbekistan, and Samir Mina Masoud Greeis, who is of Egyptian-German nationality.
The judges decided to withhold the awards in the two remaining categories, for books about the humanities and natural sciences translated from Arabic into other languages.
After a number of years of competing in various local autocross competitions, Afnan Almarglani recently became the first Saudi woman to hold an autocross and safe driving skills trainer license.
Her journey in the sport began when her motor sports-mad brother brought home a brand new PlayStation when they were growing up. The two competed in video games such as Gran Turismo 3, a racing title.
“From when I was young, I used to see my older brother Fahd interested in sports cars, modifying them and buying car parts from abroad. We used to race with each other in video games. I was so fascinated by cars, by the shape of the cars, the sound of engines and how they were driven incredibly fast. I played the game every day until it got to the point that I couldn’t beat my own fastest lap times,” she said.
Almarglani works in biomedical engineering. She previously took part in the first women’s race in Saudi Arabia during time off from her work at a project management office at the Ministry of Health.
Her blending of roles as a biomedical engineer and racer makes her unique, and her talent in both careers has allowed her to take opportunities that most women do not have.
Almarglani, who holds a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from a US university, told Arab News that her love and passion led her to work with sports cars, and that she chose to enter the field to gain experience.
“Alhamdulillah, we live in a great country with the decision to allow women to drive. So, I participated in the first women’s autocross championship and won second place in the qualifying round,” she added.
After her first foray into the sport, Almarglani took part in various local autocross championships held in Riyadh, Jeddah and Alkhobar. “After gaining experience and skills, I moved to a higher level in the autocross racing, which enabled me to take part in the Toyota Autocross Championship in Alkhobar, and I was able to win the best time in the women’s category.”
She also competed in the Speed Madness (Autocross) Championship in Riyadh’s Dirab Park, placing first.
The other biggest challenge for Almarglani is finding sponsorship opportunities. “Motor sports is an expensive sport and finding a sponsor is very difficult, so to maintain that training and to have a good team, and a good car, requires a lot of investment and you need both if you want to do well. The way to find sponsorship is through exposure and by winning races,” she said.
Almarglani is often asked how her parents feel about the dangers of her sport. She said: “Of course, at first, they were concerned about me, especially that motor sports has risks, so the level of safety in it is high, and it is expensive in terms of preparing the driver and the car. After I explained to my family all the means of protection and safety, and after they observed my passion and happiness after each race, they supported me and told me to continue, and they were always in the first ranks to encourage me.”
Recently, the official account of the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation, via Twitter, congratulated Almarglani for obtaining a training license.
Almarglani’s goal is to support every woman who wants to enter motor sports and to build a professional women’s motor sports team to represent Saudi Arabia in the world championships. “To achieve this goal, I hope there will be sponsorships offered to me as well as other Saudi female drivers in order to participate locally and regionally, to represent our beloved country.”
