Laha Online, the leading women's portal run by the Al Waqf Al Islami Foundation in Saudi Arabia, will run an annual competition on education and creativity, open to men and women, and offering total prize money of 100,000 Saudi riyals in three categories.
The portal, which targets Arab women and families, has attracted over 20 million hits.
Winner of the gold award from Webmasters and Graphic Designer Foundation in 2002, the portal focuses on addressing issues that are critical to the empowerment of women, as well as highlighting social problems with the objective of enhancing women's role in nation building.
Leena Al Qadi, director of the women's section on Laha Online, said: "In the past two years, Laha Online has achieved unprecedented success and exposure in the Arab world, and has made significant contribution to raising the image of Arab women and nurturing their cultural perspective.
"It was launched to raise awareness about women's plight in society and to take concrete steps to enlighten women about their rights. It has become a forum for a meeting of minds, with a view to finding solutions to issues that affect the progress of women in different fronts."
The annual competition has been divided into three topics. The first topic is research and legal studies, with a focus on fighting discrimination against women. The second topic is general knowledge and how it affects women's issues. The third topic concerns creativity in writing, in the form of poems, novels and short stories.
"We expect the competition to generate a huge response from all over the Arab world because Arabs are very creative and articulate on social issues," said Leena.
"We have chosen the topics after a lot of thought. Legal research and general knowledge are not getting much priority these days, but they are very important because they affect general behaviour and traditions."
The competition is open men and women of all ages. Each topic will have three winners. The maximum number of words for the novel will be 12,000 and for poems 4,000.
The deadline for submitting entries is July 16.
Open to all
* Entries can be submitted by women and men from any part of the world.* All entries must be unpublished.* They should not be thesis or studies presented as educational courses.* Entries should be presented in three copies (CDs).* Maximum number of words for novels is 12,000 and for poems 4,000.* All entries will be the property of the portal and will not be returned, even to non-winners.* Participants are required to send their CV along with email and postal addresses.* The portal reserves the right to publish all entries submitted for the competition.* The deadline for receiving entries is July 16.* Results will be announced on September 29.
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