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The British magazine The Telegraph published its annual list titled “Travel’s 50 Biggest Winners and Losers in 2024.” Topping the list of winners was the Grand Egyptian Museum.
The British magazine wrote that the Grand Egyptian Museum has finally opened on a trial basis for visitors. It spans an area of 490,000 square meters and, once fully operational, will house over 100,000 artifacts, with the most notable being the complete collection of items discovered in Tutankhamun’s tomb.
The list also included other places, such as the UAE and Notre Dame Cathedral following its reopening.
The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) project continues to achieve international milestones, winning the 2024 Project of the Year Award for users of FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers).
The award was presented during the 6th Annual FIDIC Contract Users Awards ceremony held in London.
GEM is the first Egyptian project that win this prestigious award.
Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Sherif Fathy, highlighted President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s unwavering support for the Grand Egyptian Museum, recognizing its importance as one of the most significant cultural and heritage projects in Egypt and globally.
President Sisi has consistently followed every stage of its implementation, ensuring the removal of obstacles to deliver a museum that reflects the grandeur and legacy of ancient Egyptian civilization.
The minister emphasized that this remarkable achievement would not have been possible without the President’s ongoing support and interest.
The President’s chairmanship of the museum’s Board of Trustees further demonstrates his commitment to developing the museum as a global hub for heritage and culture.
The Minister also praised this award, which is the second international recognition for GEM this month.
Last week, the museum won the Prix Versailles, ranking among the seven most beautiful museums in the world for 2024.
He expressed his gratitude to everyone who contributed to the completion of this monumental project over the years, and to the extensive efforts of all state agencies and entities that helped elevate the museum to its prestigious global status.
As he submitted the final maquettes (small-scale models) of Egypt’s folk architecture to the soon-to-open Museum of Folk Arts, Ahram Online spoke to the master himself about the merits and grace of architecture.
To Professor Essam Safi El-Din, architecture is an authentic musical note that resonates with the human touch of the people who conceptualised, built and lived in the building.
Known as the Architect and Tutor who, for over 55 years taught, designed and founded the house of Egyptian Architect and The museum of Folk Arts, Essam Safi El-Din has always believed in the philosophy and grace of popular architecture.
From Shubra Tramway to El-Refaai and Sultan Hassan
“In the 1980s, I designed the pedestrian passage between Sultan Hassan and El-Refaai Mosque, which was originally the tracks of the tramway. So my sketches were inspired by my daily tram ride from Shubra where I lived as a child in 1947 to the Citadel. I copied the same pattern that the tram took from narrow streets that end up in a vast square and the pedestrian area captured the grace and serenity of the architectural gems of the two heritage mosques,” he told Ahram Online.
On revisiting the tramway voyages with open eyes, Safi El-Dien realised that his eyes captured the human wisdom and truth in the details of the buildings that ran by him as the tramway moved across various districts of Cairo.
Handmade Architecture
A child to a renowned architect, Safi El-Din has always been fascinated by designing houses. Making his own handmade maquettes was his passion since childhood. “Since I was seven-years-old I was charmed by architecture and my prize for doing my homework was that I would go to my father’s architecture office and draw with him. My eyes started to watch the buildings and ask who built it and why,” he remembered. This passion was manifested into Egypt’s oldest mockup and design architecture in Egypt and the Arab World.
Passion for Old Buildings
Describing his favorite work spot in his home, Safi El-Din revealed to Ahram Online his relationship with the radio. “Wherever I work, I have two radios to choose from, one set to a music programme and the other to the Quran channel,” he noted
“I was always enchanted by the old architecture because of its beautiful art effects, motifs and language. There is a human and visual dialogue between me and the building because I feel the presence of the head of builders, the builders, and the inhabitants of such building. Old architecture is close to me for it fits the human scale with all its space, physiological and emotional needs,” he explained, describing how buildings can promote serenity and induce better mood for humans.
“You see, architecture is still music, and an architect has to be an artist who has a taste in music,” he explained.
Inspiring Architects
“The architects that have inspired me at an early age are Said Karim whose sketches were the first drawings I have seen in my Dad’s office. I was very fond of Hassan Fathy and Ramsis Wissa Wassef because they have this great sense of belonging to the local building techniques as a mission and a cause,” he added. His passion to safeguard the valuable knowledge in architecture and the grace of local architecture was passed on to all the students he taught and mentored in college throughout the course of over 55 years of academic world. However his keenness to pass on such knowledge to the public made him go the extra mile.
The House of Egyptian Architecture and The National Folk Museum
In the early 1980s, he wanted to document all types of Egyptian architecture under one roof. The Ministry of Culture granted him the current House of Egyptian Architecture. The charming Ottoman-style house that belonged to Hassan Fathy – the father of modern architecture in Egypt – was once the studio of Orientalist artists and has since become a cultural hub, and a museum of local architecture.
Safi El-Din’s maquettes portraying the unique identity of Egyptian architecture were the foundation of The National Folk Art Museum that held its soft opening a few months ago.
Located at the High Institute for Folk Arts in the Haram district, Giza, the official opening date for the museum has not yet been announced.
“The National Folk Art Museum is different from any museum of history because it is not focused just on the historic facts, it is more focused on the cultural value of such items in that era. The value of architecture and its types and how it is comforting. Folk arts as well as folk architecture, reveal the indigenous roots of culture, conduct, the skills of craftsmanship and handicrafts, ” he added.
Essam Safi El-Din’s name resonates with success and authenticity. There is a library dedicated to his works at the British University in Cairo, and he is currently working on a book on his eternal dialogue between architecture and art.
Gems of Wisdom
The most important thing that I have learned is that the value of history is not about knowing the facts, it’s about contextualizing such facts. He stated that his motto in life is a verse from the Quran stating that God will reward all your efforts.
“A person needs to know what his/her mission in life is; why is he here? We need to teach architectural criticism as a subject not a mere cross cutting theme. We need to know the impact of architects on social life and the environment.”
The study of light has led to promising alternative energy sources and lifesaving medical advances in diagnostics technology and treatments.
These transformative technologies were developed through centuries of fundamental research on the properties of light, including pioneering work such as Ibn Al-Haytham’s seminal Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics), published in 1015.
As the world celebrates the International Day of Light on 16 May, various Arab physicists have left an indelible mark on the Arab world’s understanding and utilization of this fundamental phenomenon.
Ibn Al-Haytham (965-1040 CE)
Considered the father of modern optics, Ibn Al-Haytham’s groundbreaking work, Kitab al-Manazir, laid the foundation for our understanding of the behavior of light, including the principles of reflection, refraction, and the workings of the human eye. His experimental approach and rejection of the prevailing theories of his time were revolutionary, and his work influenced generations of scientists who followed in his footsteps.
Photo Source: VH Magazine
Maha Ashour-Abdalla
A pioneering Egyptian-American plasma physicist, Ashour-Abdalla’s research has advanced our understanding of the complex dynamics of the Earth’s magnetosphere, with applications in space weather forecasting and protection of satellites from cosmic radiation. Her work has been instrumental in developing models to predict and mitigate the impacts of solar storms on technological infrastructure.
Photo Source: UCLA
Ali Moustafa Mosharafa (1898-1950)
This Egyptian physicist made significant contributions to the development of quantum mechanics, building on the work of pioneers like Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. His research helped bridge the gap between classical and quantum physics, laying the groundwork for our modern understanding of the subatomic world. Mosharafa’s work has had lasting implications in fields such as materials science, cryptography, and quantum computing.
Photo Source: Academic Dictionaries
Shaaban Khalil
An Egyptian theoretical physicist, Khalil is a renowned expert in particle physics and cosmology. His work on the unification of fundamental forces has had a lasting impact on our understanding of the cosmos. Khalil’s research, which combined elements of quantum mechanics, general relativity, and high-energy physics, has helped shape the nature of the fundamental forces that govern it.
Photo Source: Zewail City
These Arab scientists, among others, have not only expanded the Arab world’s knowledge of light and its applications but have also paved the way for future generations to harness the power of this fundamental phenomenon to address global challenges and push the boundaries of scientific discovery.
Khaled Noby, CEO of Nature Conservation Egypt (NCE), was selected as an impact maker for the COP29 Global Communications Campaign. This nomination recognizes NCE’s pioneering work in safeguarding biodiversity in Egypt.
NCE announced that Noby was selected on 19 November as one of the 50 impact makers in a global communications campaign launched by Nigar Arpadarai, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP29.
The Impact Makers campaign seeks to amplify the voices of leaders significantly impacting how to address the climate crisis. Through his leadership, Noby has played a crucial role in shaping Egypt’s dialogue around nature conservation and renewable energy. His nomination is part of a more significant effort to ensure that global climate strategies include biodiversity conservation as a fundamental element of the transition to renewable energy.
NCE is dedicated to integrating biodiversity conservation into the renewable energy sector. It aims to balance the country’s growing energy needs with the urgent necessity of protecting its rich and diverse wildlife and biodiversity.
NCE is witnessing the ambitious expansion in renewable energy production in Egypt, driven by the growing domestic demand and the need to cut climate change emissions from fossil fuels. However, this transition to renewable energy production negatively impacts habitats and wildlife. Renewable energy infrastructure has been reported to cause significant fatalities in various wildlife forms, particularly migratory birds.
While most conservation efforts have focused on mitigating the impacts within wind farms, NCE has been paying attention to another significant threat that needs to be adequately acknowledged: bird collisions with overhead transmission lines (OHTLs).
Moreover, NCE has effectively advocated adding local biodiversity loss to national and international agendas. Nonmigratory wildlife faces equally severe threats from poorly planned renewable energy infrastructure, yet the lack of data on local species often diverts conservation efforts towards migratory wildlife. NCE has led a successful national effort to translocate the threatened native reptile, the Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia), in collaboration with the Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE) and SafeSoar. Thirteen individuals of this endangered lizard species were safely translocated from the AMUNET Wind Farm site before construction, exemplifying effective conservation action.
“I am truly humbled to be recognized as an Impact Maker by the High-Level Champions team. This honour belongs equally to my dedicated colleagues at NCE, whose unwavering commitment to nature conservation in Egypt inspires me every day. This is a celebration of our collective efforts — I’m simply privileged to represent such a sincere and hardworking team,” said Noby.
“This recognition of Khaled Noby is very well deserved and reflects his commitment and dedication to advancing the conservation of nature in Egypt; it also represents the collective effort of the NCE team and their success, under the stewardship of Khaled, in becoming a leader in the conservation field in the Middle East and North Africa. Congratulations to Khaled, NCE, and Egypt for this recognition,” said Sherif Baha El Din, NCE board chairman.
Noby’s inclusion in the campaign places a spotlight on Egypt’s unique position at the intersection of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, highlighting how the country can serve as a model for other regions facing similar challenges.
Egypt bids farewell to the guard of Semsemya, Zakaria Ibrahim.
For the past 44 years, Zakaria Ibrahim or “El-Rayes” (meaning the chief) had played and safeguarded the heritage music of his hometown Port Said through the Port Said Folk Heritage Troupe, which he established in 1980.
In an interview with Ahram Online, Ibrahim previously said that his initial approach relied on the sounds of the Semsemya musical instrument. Five years later, he reintroduced the ancient Tanboura instrument, a larger predecessor and origin of the Semsemya, dating back to ancient Egyptians. Consequently, he rebranded his ensemble as Al-Tanboura.
“We the Bamboteya, no one is like us, merchant boatmen in the canal” the troupe sang about the Semsemya’s affiliation with the history of trade on the Port Said marina. Small boats, called ManBoats, moored offshore, and sold goods to passing vessels, using sign language in trading. This language is the foundation of the heritage dance affiliated with Semsemya.
To safeguard and revive heritage music, beyond Semsemya, Ibrahim co-founded the Mastaba Centre for Egyptian Folk Music in 2000. Documenting and archiving traditional Egyptian songs, music, and musical instruments, as well as the voices and history of Egyptian music were among the centre’s main goals.
He also established El-Damma theatre in Abdeen district, Cairo, where heritage troupes played for years on a weekly basis. El Damma means coming closer, and it was a social ritual in Port Said where people would come together and sing their heritage songs and play the Semsemya.
For the eighth time in history and for the third consecutive time, Egypt secured the title at the CAHB African Men’s Youth Handball Championship, displaying a flawless performance in Mahdia, Tunisia, taking six wins in six matches to secure yet another gold medal, the eighth in 10 editions of the competition.
The eight participating teams at the 2024 CAHB African Men’s Youth Handball Championship were divided into two groups of four teams each, with all teams progressing to the quarter-finals, but Egypt and hosts Tunisia taking three wins in three matches in the preliminary round.
Egypt clearly outplayed their opponents in their group, taking wins against Guinea (46:22), Burundi (66:15) and Algeria (42:22) to secure the first place, being followed by Guinea, Algeria and Burundi in the final standings.
In the other group, hosts Tunisia took wins against Libya (30:17), Kenya (44:16) and Morocco (26:17), to set up a path towards a final against Egypt, with Morocco, Libya and Kenya finishing second, third and fourth respectively.
The reigning champions, the big favourites to take another gold medal, had no issues against Kenya in the quarter-finals, 55:14, while Tunisia also easily disposed of Burundi, 48:27, to progress to the semi-finals.
The closest match in the quarter-finals was the one between Morocco and Algeria, with Morocco taking a 25:20 win, while Guinea dominated Libya, 34:22, as the top two sides in each group went into the semi-finals.
The semi-finals saw the two big favourites take control again, with Egypt sealing their fifth double-digits win in a row, this time against Morocco, 40:15, while Tunisia slowly followed suit, setting up the final against Egypt, with a 31:22 over Guinea.
However, in the last act of the competition, Egypt did not have an easy mission. After the first half, the hosts had a 16:15 lead, which morphed into a two-goal lead after 35 minutes, 19:17. But in the next 25 minutes, Egypt doubled the number of goals scored, adding another 17, to cruise to yet another win.
With their sixth win in the competition, 34:29, Egypt, the future hosts of thr 2025 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, secured the eighth title in 10 editions of the CAHB African Men’s Youth Handball Championship, delivering a pitch perfect performance, to consolidate their status as a powerhouse of the continent, as Tunisia secured the fifth silver medal in the continental competition at this age category.
The bronze medal was sealed by Guinea, with a 20:11 win over Morocco, their maiden medal in the history of the competition, after their best performance was the fifth place in 2018.
2024 CAHB African Men’s Youth Handball Championship – final standings
Earlier this year, Africans Column, a platform dedicated to celebrating African excellence in art, architecture, and design, released its prestigious list of the 50 Influential African Women Architects. Among the honourees were four remarkable Egyptian women whose contributions transformed the architectural landscape and redefined the role of women in this field. These women have reached extraordinary professional heights while maintaining their private lives and family commitments, making them inspiring role models for future generations of architects.
Magda Mostafa, an architect and Principal of StudioTM, is also a Professor of Design at the American University in Cairo (AUC). She is internationally recognised for her pioneering work in autism-inclusive design, particularly through developing the ASPECTSS™ design guidelines. This framework, the first research-based model for designing spaces for individuals with autism, has significantly impacted architectural projects across five continents.
Mostafa’s achievements have earned her prestigious awards, including the UIA International Research Award in 2014 and a second award in 2023. Her work was also showcased at the Venice Architecture Biennales in 2021 and 2023. In addition to her architectural practice, Mostafa co-directs the UNESCO-UIA education commission, where she helps shape global architectural education policies.
May Al-Ibrashy: Preserving Egypt’s Architectural Heritage
May Al-Ibrashy is a conservation architect with nearly 30 years of experience and also an Architectural Engineer Professor at AUC. She is the founder and chair of the Built Environment Collective, an NGO dedicated to preserving Egypt’s architectural and cultural heritage. Her work in Historic Cairo, specifically restoring the Shrine of al-Imam al-Shafi’i, has earned her recognition from organisations such as the US Embassy in Cairo and The Barakat Trust.
Al-Ibrashy’s dedication to heritage conservation is both professional and personal. She believes in the power of architecture to connect people with their history and works closely with local communities to ensure they are integral to any preservation project. Her initiatives, such as the Athar Lina Initiative, demonstrate her commitment to participatory conservation that benefits both the community and the built environment.
Sarah El Battouty: Championing Green Architecture and Sustainability
Sarah El Battouty founded ECOnsult, which has led the way in green building and sustainable development for over 18 years. Her innovative approach to architecture has earned her international recognition, with projects in Egypt, Italy, and China. As a senior advisor to the Egyptian president on sustainable community development, El Battouty has played a key role in shaping Egypt’s environmental policies, including energy and water conservation initiatives and the Paris Climate Agreement.
El Battouty’s influence extends beyond architecture. She is a Global Ambassador for the UN Climate Change Campaigns and the first Egyptian to be recognised as a UN Sustainable Development Leader. Her work promoting sustainability has also earned her recognition as a Green Entrepreneur by Bloomberg Good Business.
Shahira Fahmy, founder of Shahira Fahmy Architects, established her practice in Cairo in 2005. Since then, her firm has gained international acclaim, winning awards in cities such as London, Chicago, Switzerland, Istanbul, and Dubai. Her work spans architecture, urbanism, product design, and art. Her work has also been featured in prominent publications like The New York Times, The Architects’ Journal, and The Architectural Review.
Fahmy’s impact extends beyond her work in architecture. She is a visiting professor at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation and has been a guest critic and speaker at prestigious institutions like Harvard, Yale, and MIT.
Thirteen Egyptian businesswomen made it to the Forbes Middle East 100 Most powerful businesswomen 2023 list this year.
The list was prepared by the famous financial magazine’s Middle East edition according to the size of the business, the individual’s impact and achievements, performance over the last year, and the scope of CSR and other initiatives led by the person.
The 100-entry list included 104 women from 27 different sectors and 27 nationalities.
The UAE and Egypt scored the most entries at 15 and 12, respectively, followed by Saudi Arabia (11) , Kuwait (eight), and six from each of Lebanon, Qatar and Oman.
Egyptian businesswomen are no strangers to the list, having topped the list in previous years in terms of the number of entries.
Below Ahram Online sheds light on the Egyptian businesswomen who made it to the list:
Dalia El-Baz (13th on the list)
An American University in Cairo alumna, El-Baz is the executive deputy chairman of the National Bank of Egypt (NBE).
El-Baz, who has been on the list before, posseses 28 years of experience in the banking sector.
She joined Egypt’s largest bank in terms of assets in 2008 as head of the operational risk management group, becoming Chief Operating officer (COO) in December 2015.
In 2016, she was appointed on the bank’s executive committee.
In September 2017, she became the first woman to become the executive deputy chairman of the NBE.
Pakinam Kafafi (21st on the list)
A Cairo University graduate, Pakinam Kafafi started her career in finance and banking at EFG-Hermes in the mid-1990s, rising to the position of vice president in 2000.
She then moved to the oil and energy sector.
In 2003, Kafafi was appoointed the strategy and investment general manager of Gas & Energy Group (GENCO).
When Citadel Group acquired GENCO and merged it with TAQA Arabia, Kafafi maintained her role.
In April 2013, Pakinam Kafafi was selected as the company’s CEO.
Rawya Mansour (27th on the list)
A Cairo university graduate, Rawya Mansour proved herself one of Egypt’s leading businesswomen.
Mansour is a descendant from one of Egypt’s oldest families in the field of business.
In 1999, she founded RAMSCO for Refined Architecture and Interior Design.
In 2007, she started RAMSCO for Trade and Distribution.
She also established the Organic Agriculture for Social International Solidarity (OASIS) in Monaco in 2012.
Reem Asaad (39th on the list)
An Egyptian American, Reem Asaad is a Harvard business school graduate who continued her career in Egypt when she served as the CEO of Raya Data Center from January 2012 till December 2016.
From January 2017 to February 2020, Asaad served as Raya Contact Center CEO befor
In 2020, she was appointed Cisco Middle East and Africa Vice President.
Cisco employs 3,000 people and contractors in 74 countries across the Middle East and Africa.
In March 2021, she was appointed by Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology to serve on the board of directors for the country’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency.
Hend El-Sherbini (42nd on the list)
A graduate of Cairo University, Dr Hend El-Sherbini is a professor of clinical pathology at the University’s Faculty of Medicine.
El-Sherbini served as the CEO of Al-Mokhtabar between 2004 and 2012.
She has been seving as IDH Group’s CEO since 2012.
IDH has a network of 546 branch labs as of September 2022 in Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan and Pakistan.
The group recorded revenues of $281 million in 2021 and $143 million in the first nine months of 2022.
In August 2022, El-Sherbini increased her holdings in the group with 7.3 million additional shares through Hena Holdings.
Now, she owns 26.71 percent of the group.
Farida and Yasmine Khamis (43rd on the list)
The daughters of the famous Egyptian carpets tycoon, Farida and Yasmine Khamis are considered veterans of the Forbes list.
American University of Cairo alumni, Yasmine Khamis is currently the Chairwoman of Oriental Weavers Group, while her sister Farida is her vice-chair.
Both sisters made headlines last December when they transferred their combined 24.61percent stake in Oriental Weavers Carpet to London-based FYK limited, which is fully owned by them.
They are also board members of the British University in Cairo .
Mona Zulficar (48th on the list)
The famous renowned lawyer and human rights activist is the Forbes Middle East 100 women list veteran who has appeared constantly on the list since it started.
A Cairo University graduate, Zulficar is a veteran corporate, banking, and project finance attorney and human rights activist.
She cofounded Zulficar & Partners in 2009. Mona Zulficar chaired EFG Hermes Holding since 2008 and the Egyptian Microfinance Federation since 2015.
Mona Zulficar is currently a member of Egypt’s National Council of Human Rights.
Elham Mahfouz (56th on the list)
An AUC alumna, Elham Mahfouz has over 30 years of banking experience mostly in Kuwait.
Mahfouz has been the CEO of the Commercial Bank of Kuwait (Al-Tijari) since 2014.
Al-Tijari recorded $179 million in net profit and $14.1 billion worth of total assets in 2021.
Mahfouz is a member of the supervisory board of the American University of Kuwait.
Hilda Louca (62nd on the list)
A graduate of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, Transport and Maritime Transport, Hilda Louca is a newcomer to the list.
Louca started her career in Lufthansa’s customer service before moving to become a sales marking manager at Al-Ahram Beverage Company-Heineken Egypt for three years.
In 2018, she founded MITCHA – platform to support Egyptian designers.
Today, the platform features 200 designers and brands.
Omnia Kelig (84th on the list)
An AUC alumna, Omnia Kelig is a banking and cooperate financing veteran who started her career in the CIB in 1999.
Kelig is currently Deputy CEO, Chairwoman and Managing Director of NAEEM Holding, a dual-listed company on the Egyptian Stock Exchange and the Dubai Financial Market.
In the first nine months of 2022, NAEEM reported $8.2 million in total revenues and $273 million in assets.
Before joining NAEEM, Kelig was a founder and managing director of Viveris Mashrek, a subsidiary of France’s Viveris Management.
She was also a partner and director for Haykala Investment Management and a co-head of investment banking at Barclays Bank in Egypt.
Abir Leheta (87th on the list)
An AUC alumna, Abir Leheta is another veteran on the Forbes list.
Leheta joined the Egyptian Transport and Commercial Services Company “EgyTrans” in 1997.
She has been EgyTrans CEO since 2017.
She is also the chairman of Barwil Egytrans and ScanArabia.
Abeer Helmy Saleh ( 99th on the list)
An AUC alumna, Abeer Helmy Saleh previously held a number of managerial positions, including managing director and board member at Wafa Life Insurance Company and managing director of Bupa Egypt Insurance.
In March 2022, Saleh was appointed as a Board Member & Managing Director of Misr Life Insurance, Takaful, which was established as a joint venture between Misr Insurance Holding Company, the National Bank of Egypt, and Banque Misr, with a capital of over $5 million.
Born in Saudi Arabia and the daughter of a Sudanese father and Egyptian mother, Marwa Zein is a woman that truly embodies multiple identities, and for many it is this that perhaps shines through the most in her work. Even when it comes to her roles, that diversity and multiplicity are frontline and center. An award-winning director, scriptwriter, film producer, women’s rights activist, and founder of ORE Production, a Khartoum-based film production company, Zein is inspiring in every way.
Before setting off on a journey to become a filmmaker, Zein enrolled in Cairo University as a chemical engineering student to please her parents. While studying, she worked and saved up to have the means to leave her degree behind three years later, instead study cinema at the Academy of Arts in Cairo, Egypt in 2005. In 2009, she graduated with honors and moved to Germany to continue her film studies. Her graduation project, “A game,” was an official selection of more dozens of international festivals across the globe and was translated into five languages.
From her inspiring start into the world of film and her academic achievements, Zein moved on to bigger goals, nabbing awards for her short film “One Week, Two Days,” which premiered at the 2016 Dubai International Film Festival. In 2019, she was selected as one of the seven young filmmakers from across to attend the Cannes Film Festival 2019 by the International Emerging Film Talent Association (IEFTA).
Perhaps her most renowned recent work is “Khartoum Offside,” which was awarded Best Documentary for 2019 at the 15th Africa Movie Academy Awards AMAA 2019. The documentary tells the story of women footballers whose dream it is to play for Sudan at a Women’s World Cup hosted by their home country, revealing the challenging social, economic, and political situations they face and inspiring audiences with their tale.
Speaking to Women and Hollywood in 2019, Zein had some inspiring words of advice for other female filmmakers, saying, “There’s no competition. Everyone is unique, and we can’t tell the same story even we have the same idea. You are special, different, and inspiring, and you lead the way for the people coming after you.”
“Take care of your mental, physical, and financial situations. It’s a very challenging and demanding business, so don’t lose your soul in the process. Stay true to who you are, and you will reach the horizon,” she continued.
About 34 million years ago, in the Eocene period of the Paleogene (the period from 66 to 23 million years ago), and in a tropical-like environment with forests and swamps in what is today the Qatrani Desert in Egypt’s Fayoum Depression, a genus of rodents that was not known before, used to live.
In a new study published in PeerJ, researcher Shorouk Al-Ashqar, a member of the “Sallam Lab” team specialised in vertebrate fossils at Mansoura University, studied two skulls and a large group of mandibles of fossils belong to the “Qatranimys Safroutus”.
“But it wasn’t easy; the samples were very small and very thin and adhered to the solid rocky clay, which made preparing the samples for study very difficult. We had to make accurate CT scans to be able to study them in a three-dimensional image,” said Hesham Sallam, the lead author of the study.
The newly discovered genus of rodents was called “Qatranimys Safroutus” which refers to the location of the discovery in the first word, whilst “safroutus” means too small in the Egyptian Arabic dialect.
The length of the molar of Qatranimys Safroutus was one millimetre, and its skull was about 1.5 centimetres long, and its weight did not exceed 45 grams.
Jebel Qatrani Formation is famous for its rich rodent assemblages from the Eocene–Oligocene deposits, which contributes to enhancing our understanding of the origin and paleobiogeography of what scientists call the “Hystricognathi” which are an infraorder of rodents, distinguished from other rodents by the bone structure of their skulls.
Al-Ashqar said that the samples used in the study showed clear differences in the morphological characteristics of the upper and lower teeth. And by comparing these samples with the discovered rodents from Afro-Arabia, it was clear that it belongs to a new genus that has never been discovered before.
“We did not only record a new genus and species, but we were able to record the first bones of the skull of a large group to which the discovery belongs, called the “Phiocricetomys”, she added.
Researchers from Mansoura University, the American University in Cairo, the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Duke University and the University of Salford participated in the study.
