Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 3 - 9 January 2002 Issue No.567
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Small fair
To be inaugurated today by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, the 18th Cairo Child's Book Fair will bring together 700 publishers from 50 countries, said Samir Sarhan, head of the Egyptian Book Organisation. Among countries participating for the first time this year are Canada and New Zealand. In the course of the opening ceremony, Mrs Mubarak will meet with writers and publishers, the better to understand the dynamics of this crucial area of literary endeavour. The main symposium of the Fair will revolve around the "Read to your Child" project, another of the first lady's initiatives. Government agencies participating in the fair this year include the Ministry of Youth, the Ministry of Education and the Cabinet Information Centre.

Royal brushstrokes
A LARGE-SCALE retrospective exhibition of the work of the Jordanian Princess Fakhrennessa Zayd (d. 1991) on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her birth is currently showing in Amman. Held in the Darat Al- Funoun Gallery, a subsidiary of the Abdel- Hamid Shouman Foundation, the exhibition includes 140 works by the artist, including oil paintings, water colours and drawings. It also features some of Zayd's belongings -- books, documents, photographs. Born in Istanbul, Zayd exhibited in London, Paris, New York, Brussels and Zurich during her lifetime.

Books, books, books
THE 26TH Kuwait Book Fair, which opened last Tuesday under the supervision of the National Council for Culture and the Arts, closes today. Some 600 publishers from 14 Arab and six foreign countries participated in the event, director Mohamed El-Rumiehi announced earlier in the week, contributing some 70,000 titles. Ibrahim El-Mo'alem, head of the Arab Publishers Union, voiced a consensus view when he said the event represented the raising of "the banner of enlightenment" by the Kuwaiti government in defiance of extremism and ongoing international events. The fair incorporated lectures and poetry evenings, featuring Egyptian poets Abdel-Rahman El- Abnoudi and Mohamed Ibrahim Abu Senna as well as the popular religious speaker Amr Khaled. Al-Ahram contributed some 1,500 titles in print and digital media.

El-Atrash downtown
THE CINEMATIC Cultural Centre, headed by Farouk Abdel-Khaleq, is organising an evening to commemorate 27 years since the death of composer and singer Farid El-Atrash. The event features a screening of Habib Al- Roh, El-Atrash's first collaboration with filmmaker Henri Barakat, followed by a seminar in which musicians Mohamed Qabil and Esam Karara, filmmaker Ali Abdel-Khaleq and Barakat's daughter Randa will participate.

World women
THE SIXTH conference of the Arab Woman's Solidarity Association, headed by novelist Nawal El-Saadawi, opens today at the Greater Cairo Library in Zamalek. The main symposium, entitled "Arab women and world variables," will engage feminists from 18 countries in the discussion of a range of issues from north-south dialogue and women in NGOs to violence, immigration and creativity as they pertain to Arab women. This three-day event will also include a screening of the Palestinian filmmaker Liyana Badr's Zaytouna.

Bin Laden's champions
UNDER the supervision of head censor Madkour Thabet, a committee of critics and intellectuals is embroiled in the task of reviewing Delta Force 3, a Hollywood production whose title Egyptian distributors translated as "The Bin Laden-Capture Team." An action thriller about a Muslim terrorist who jeopardises the security of a major American city, the film was rejected by the censors in October 2000; its plot, they said, portrayed Arabs and Muslims as backward terrorists who use only force to realise their objectives. After the war in Afghanistan, however, distributors decided to have another go.

Wily prince
SCRIPT writer Sami Ghoneim is currently in the process of adapting Amir Al-Dahaa (Prince of Guile), a film that has been made twice (starring Anwar Wagdi and Farid Shawqi, respectively), for the small screen. A historical drama revolving around the figure of Amr Ibn Al-Aass, the Arab leader who brought Islam to Egypt,

Vocational confusion
THIS week actress Sherihan was again denied membership of the Egyptian Lawyers Syndicate, an honour she has been seeking, on the strength of her university qualifications, for some time. Sameh Ashour, the head of the syndicate, told Al-Hayat that the Syndicate Council, far from being biased against Sherihan, is simply abiding by the law, which stipulates that no member of the syndicate should practice another profession. Sherihan would be welcome, he said, if she gave up acting and devoted herself to the courts. Yet the actress, who is appealing again, insists that she can practice both jobs simultaneously.

Palace chief
LAST week the Ministry of Culture's higher committee for leaders unanimously settled on Anas El-Fiqi, a member of the Egyptian Publishers' Union, as the new head of the General Organisation for Cultural Palaces, a post that has been officially unoccupied since 16 November. The committee, headed by Minister Farouk Hosni, included Fawzi Fahmi, Farouk Abdel-Salam and Ismail Seddiq -- all high- ranking officials of the Ministry. Of the five candidates under consideration -- Amr El- Bora'i, Mohamed Eid, Gamal Sadeq and Mohamed Khalil -- El-Fiqi was the only one not already employed by the Organisation.

Publishers' alert
FORMER Minister of Culture Tharwat Okasha, has recently completed the three volumes making up his Encyclopedia of Art in the Far East, covering India, China, Japan and Korea. This impressive achievement, which has been described as the primary reference in Arabic on the topic, is part of Okasha's long-term encyclopedic project "The eye hears, the ear sees," begun in the 1960s. As he announced to the press last week, however, Okasha has yet to find a publisher willing and able to adequately undertake a task of such magnitude.
Compiled by Youssef Rakha

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