Palestinian cause provides inspiration at Arabic calligraphy competition in Sidon

23 March 2010

SIDON: The Palestinian cause was the main subject of inspiration for participants in the Arabic calligraphy competition held on Monday in the southern coastal city of Sidon.

The competition was organized by Jinan University, under the patronage of the Parliamentary Commission on Education and Culture with the collaboration of the Centre Culturel Français.

It accepted the candidatures of school and university students from Sidon and judged drawings that included Arabic writings as well as Arabic texts written in an artistic print.

Over 100 students participated in the competition with some providing drawings which included Arabic writings and others through writing Arabic expressions in an artistic way or even through writing articles in defense of Arabic print.

“We should defend Arabic calligraphy because people are forgetting about it. It is one of the most beautiful and noble calligraphies and it’s the print of the holy Koran,” said Amira Abed, a journalism student at Jinan University.

But the Arabic print was not the only cause the students were trying to defend. Many chose the Palestinian cause and the recent events in Occupied Jerusalem as a source of inspiration.

Zeinab Bazzi, an 18 year-old from Sidon, drew an evil hand wrapping its clawed fingers around an angelic face wearing a traditional Palestinian scarf. On the scarf was written “Zahrat al-Madaen”, meaning the flower of all cities in Arabic.

Bazzi explained that the hand symbolized Israel and the face represented occupied Jerusalem while the lines on the scarf indicated the Israeli violence against the city.

MP and head of the commission Bahia Hariri praised the students for their work and for adopting the Palestinian cause as one of their themes. “Every word you write and read has a meaning. This is our identity and our cause,” she said.

The students also chose the theme of Mothers’ Day for their art pieces and wrote several articles and poems about a mother’s relationship with her children.

The art works will be judged by a panel of professors from Jinan University and head of the university in Sidon, Ahmad Ashraqieh, who said that some of the entries in the competition included a mixture of Arabic and French texts.

Copyright The Daily Star 2010.