Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 31 May - 6 June 2001 Issue No.536
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Spot the dinosaur

Ali Salem

Two days after the end of the trial of the director of the Ibn Khaldun Centre, sociologist Saadeddin Ibrahim the decision by an in-house legal committee to expel playwright Ali Salem from the Union of Egyptian Writers was approved. Salem "acted against the general assembly's decisions regarding normalisation with Israel," union president Farouq Khourshid declared following a union executive committee meeting last Wednesday. A well-known supporter of Sadat's peace accords, Salem has visited Israel numerous times, written positively of his visits, cooperated with Israelis and appeared on Israeli television. The decision was three votes short of unanimous.
To Salem, who announced that he will contest the expulsion order in court, the decision is "so surprising it's as if a live dinosaur were found in Tahrir Square." This alone, he said, explains the importance the international press attached to his expulsion, comparing it to Ibrahim's seven-year prison sentence: "My name no longer appears in the papers unless I am being interrogated or expelled... if I write a play nobody publishes anything about it. I work in the open and I cooperate with anybody working to promote peace," Salem repeatedly affirmed.
As to his call for halting the ongoing Al-Aqsa Intifada, a call aired two weeks ago during an Egyptian TV programme, Salem said: "The Egyptian-Jordanian initiative, the Mitchell report, and all American and European efforts call for a halt to the Intifada and a return to the negotiating table.... The Union of Egyptian Writers, which calls for the continuation of the Intifada at any cost, may not be aware that the cost could well be the Palestinian people themselves."
Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz subsequently criticised the union's decision, noting that before expelling Salem the union should have given him a hearing and listened to what he had to say about the charges levelled against him. On the other hand, a spokesperson for the union said that the decision to expel Salem came after a number of union members served a legal injunction on the current executive committee requiring that they either implement the "no to normalisation with Israel" policy passed by every general assembly since 1995, or face an extraordinary general assembly and a possible vote of no confidence. He further added that the union had previously written to 12 of its members who were involved in what was considered "normalisation" activities and that all but Ali Salem had agreed to stop dealing with Israel.
Trophies for the taking
Recipients of annual state awards in the humanities will be named later this month when the Supreme Council for Culture convenes -- a process accompanied by much anticipatory name-juggling.
Critic Shawqi Deif and writer Anis Mansour -- the two front-runners who received an equal number of votes, causing the award to be withheld last year -- are competing with novelist Tharwat Abaza (former president of the Writers Union) and critic Abdel-Qadir El-Qott for the Mubarak Award in literature. Of the eight arts candidates, painter Tahiya Halim and musicologist Samha El-Kholi (former dean of the Cairo Conservatoire) are the best-known. And of the 13 social science nominees former prime ministers Atef Sedqi and Ali Lotfi, together with former Minister of Planning Ismail Sabri Abdalla, are the most prominent candidates.
State Merit Award candidates for literature include vernacular poet Abdel-Rahman El-Abnoudi, Ne'mat Ahmed Fouad, Ragaa El-Naqqash and Youssef El-Sharouni; arts nominees include Hamid Oweis and Hassan Heshmat; while former Minister of Social Affairs Amaal Osman was nominated for the social sciences award.
The State Distinction Award nominations, too, offer familiar names: writer Abdel-Aal El-Hamamsi (whose nomination was rejected last year, causing him to threaten a hunger strike), poet Mohamed Ibrahim Abu Senna and Nehad Selaiha, the Weekly's drama critic, in literature; Abdel-Qader El-Telmessani and Sabri Nashid in art; and Safwat Kamal and Mohamed Nour Farahat in social sciences.
State incentive award nominations have yet to be approved by the council.
Tightening the belt
The Jarash Festival is Jordan's most celebrated cultural event, yet in its 20th round -- starting 25 July -- it will not invite Arab pop stars or dance and theatre troupes from the West, two expensive programme items that have established its reputation through the years. Greis El-Samawi, who replaced Akram Masarwa as the festival director only two months ago, explained that Jarash is operating on a much smaller budget this year. A private, non-profit organisation, the festival receives support from various state institutions, but neither government nor festival administration has any interest in reducing the scope of the festival's activities. Commentators recalled two hitches that may have contributed to the present reduced budget: in 1997 Masarwa clashed with the press and for the first time major newspapers boycotted Jarash while in 1998 the festival's popularity suffered a dramatic, unexpected drop. No conclusions were reached.
Only two non-Arab troupes will participate in Jarash this year: one from Turkey, the other from Iran. Of all the historic city's venues, only two will be used as performance space. El-Samawi added that this year's programme will pay special attention to the ongoing Palestinian Intifada.
Compiled by Youssef Rakha

Recommend this page

© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved

Send a letter to the Editor

ARCHIVES
Letter from the Editor
Editorial Board
Subscription
Advertise!

WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly
Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time
weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg

Al-Ahram Organisation