Ahmad Rachdan

Palestine

Arabic content creator; He wrote the linguistic content for the “Arab Reading Challenge” for three consecutive seasons. The Poetry Stories program was presented in cooperation with Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center. He prepared a collection of video clips for the Mohammed bin Rashid Library and the UAE Government Media Office. He is the author of the first Arabic educational book on the Kufic Mushaf script, published in 2021.

Imane Arab

Algeria

Debate in Arabic; She chaired the Algerian Youth Parliament Committee, the only Arabic-speaking committee, in the Model United Nations Algeria program in 2022. She participated in refereeing several national and regional debate championships in Arabic language. She won the award for the best Arabic language debate team for the year 2020 in the National Debating Championship organized by the British Council.

Jawaher Alameri

United Arab Emirates

Specialized in high-energy lasers, and senior researcher at the Technological Innovation Institute. She leads a project to design laser systems on drones. An Emirati thinker was classified, in 2023 within the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research’s “Emirates Thinkers” platform. She is a member of Toastmasters Arabic Public Speaking, through which she won the Best Speech Award in 2019.

Raffi Jarrouj

Syria

Journalist and presenter; was chosen as an ambassador for the World Congress of Media in its first and second editions, and also chosen as an audio commentator on the first videos of the Museum of the Future, by the Media Office of the Government of Dubai. He provides digital content in native Arabic language, on social media, where he achieved more than a billion views on his platforms, by providing to the audience translated reliable scientific information, stories, anecdotes, and lessons in simplified language.

Raed AlEid

Saudi Arabia

Writer; who published “Paths of Reading,” “Paths of Writing,” and “Boat’s Brothers.” Host of the “Café Podcast,” in which he meets writers and translators from the Arab world. Founder of the “Writing Community” to support local writers through his various initiatives.

Razan Selman

Syria

Architect and Translator; who translated into Arabic in philosophy of science “Infinity and the Mind: The Science and Philosophy of Infinity”; In astrophysics “Death By a black hole and other cosmic quandaries”; In linguistics “Atoms of Language”; In ecology and climate change “Extreme Cities”.

Rawan al-Humaimi

Oman

Arabic teacher; who participated in the “I Can Read with My Hand” initiative to enable students with visual impairment to read Arabic books, by converting them to a digital version in Braille. She works on several projects aimed at delivering the written Arabic heritage to people of determination.

Sara Ahmad

United Arab Emirates

Engineer and manga author; She wrote the series “The Heart of Touqar - THT,,” the first of its kind in the Emirates. She is the author of the series of fantasy novels, “NAZEEF.”

Sarah Abidi

India

Arabic calligrapher; Specialized in Diwani script, Thuluth script, Kufic Mushafi script, and Sunbali script. She participated in the Sharjah Arabic Calligraphy Forum and the Miraj International Exhibition in Bangalore. She launched her own project, “Abdi Arabic Calligraphy.”

Samuraize

Japan

Engineer and Arabic content creator. He provides content through social media platforms aimed at teaching the Arabic language to foreigners, especially Japanese, in innovative and simplified ways.

Safaa Abu Ghalyon

Jordan

Arabic language teacher for non-native speakers; Trainer and supervisor of educational programs and prepared curricula. She has taught students of more than 35 nationalities in a number of universities and institutes in the Arab world. Founder of a private educational institute.

Amer Mohammed

Syria

Content creator; who preparer and present of the “Be-alfusuha” program, which has received more than 300 million views, and founder of the “Identity” project, with more than 250,000 followers.

Aisha Al Zaabi

United Arab Emirates

Media personality and program preparer; She prepared and presented literary programs on the Arabic language, including: “Riwaq”, “From What I Read,” and “Light and Shadow.”

Abdul Gafoor Kunnathodi

India

Professor in Arabic language; He is called “the guardian of the Arabic language”. He contributed to the training programs for Arabic language teachers in government schools organized by the Ministry of Education in the Indian state of Kerala. He won the “Many Languages, One World” international essay writing competition (Arabic language category), which was organized by the United Nations Academic Impact Authority, and as a result he received the opportunity to deliver a speech in Arabic on the General Assembly platform at the United Nations headquarters in New York in 2017.

Ammar Sousou

Syria

Artificial intelligence engineer; The Ministry of Artificial Intelligence in the UAE chose him among the best programmers for building an artificial intelligence model that automatically places syntactic signs in Arabic texts according to the context of speech.

Omar Al-Balushi

Oman

Academic researcher and international negotiator in Arabic; He won first place in the Oratory and Speech Competition at Sohar University in the third media forum. He presented research papers in the field of communication globalization and cultural identities.

Fatima Al Ahbabi

United Arab Emirates

Author and researcher in Literary/Cultural Criticism.
‏Amongst her publications “Existential Glimpses - Readings in Monades Poetics” and “Out of context - Epigrammatic Prose”. 

Fatima Alhammadi

United Arab Emirates

Specialist in environmental science and sustainability and author of short stories. Among its projects aimed at supporting content in the Arabic language on social media sites is the “Dad Ambassadors” platform, and the hashtag # Khamisna_Belfosha.

Fatima AlAmiri

United Arab Emirates

Writer and artist; She is the founder of the “Futtaim World” platform, which dedicated to teaching and promoting the Arabic language with Arts and crafts.  She has 6 books in the fields of short stories and children's literature. She participated in several international book fairs, including: the Bologna Book Fair in Italy, and the Guadalajara Book Fair in Mexico.

Mohamed Alhassani

United Arab Emirates

Engineer and author in linguistic and lexicographic studies; He published the book “Glimpses of the linguistic connotations of the names of eastern places in the UAE.”

Mohammad Al-isawi

Jordan

Arabic content creator; who preparer and present programs including: “letter dad,” “Values,” “Arabian Delights,” “Arabic Books Podcast,” and the “Journey of Change” channel on Instagram. He is Known as “Arabic language young man”, and presented a talk at Arabic TED platform.

Maysam Azzam

Palestine

Arabic content creator; “Campaign”, the British magazine, included her name in the list of thirty media talents under the age of thirty. She Arabized the content of Majid Al Futtaim’s brands in the entertainment and cinema sectors, and thus won the award for the best media brands in the Arab world.

Wael Chebbi

Tunisia

Active in diplomacy and civil society; Supports the presence of the Arabic language in international discussions and digital diplomacy. He worked to include the Arabic language in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. He is active in communicating with political leaders and officials to consolidate the strategic value of the Arabic language.

Dr. Ali bin Tamim

Dr. Ali bin Tamim has been the Secretary-General of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award since 2011. He is the head of the recently established Abu Dhabi Center for the Arabic Language.

Bin Tamim served various position and duties: Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center, Chairman of the Committee and Member of the Board of Directors of the National Archives 2015-2018, Member of the Jury of the Prince of Poets Program. He was a member of the Higher Committee for the State Appreciation Award, and was a member of the Emirates Cultural Awards, the most important of which are the Dubai Cultural Award and the Khalifa Educational Award. He was in charge of managing the Kalima translation project, and held the position of General Manager of Abu Dhabi Media Company from 2016-2019.

Bin Tamim received a PhD in Literary Criticism from Yarmouk University, Jordan in 2005 and a Master’s degree in Arabic language and papers from the University of Jordan in 2001.

Dr. Mustafa Saeed

A composer and oud player. He held the position of Director of the "AMAR Foundation for Archiving and Research in Arab Music" from 2009 to 2022. It is the only organization in the Arab world that specializes in the audio archiving of Arab music. Mustafa also directed and composed "Rawdat Al-Balabil," a podcast series on classical Arab music sponsored by AMAR and the Sharjah Art Foundation.

He embarked on a scholarly journey around the Mediterranean Sea and Central Asia to study music from different regions. He pursued independent studies and participated in a global music program at various universities, starting with the American University in Cairo. He also engaged in literary and linguistic studies at Ain Shams University.

He conducted workshops, delivered conferences, and lectures in numerous academic and artistic institutions. He has written several musical compositions for plays, dance performances, and documentary films.

He founded the Asil Ensemble for Contemporary Standard Arabic Music in 2003, which has released four musical albums, including "Rubaiyat Al-Khayyam" in 2008. He has more than 10 solo oud albums and collaborations with other groups.

He has accomplished significant research in music manuscripts, most notably "Safinat Al-Malik wa Nafisa Al-Falak" by "Shihab al-Din Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Umar al-Masri al-Makki." It served as the basis for his doctoral thesis in musicology, completed in 2023.

Dr. Jamal bin Huwaireb

His Excellency Jamal bin Huwaireb serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF) and as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Secretary General of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Award (MBRKA). He is a member of the advisory boards of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Sharjah University; the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the UAE University; the UAE Advisory Council on the Arabic Language; and the Supreme Advisory Board of Zewail City of Science and Technology in the Arab Republic of Egypt. His Excellency has also been appointed as a member of the Global Leadership Council at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford; the Board of Trustees at the Al Falah University; the Board at the Saudi Media Award; and the Governing Board at the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), in Hamburg, Germany. Locally, HE strengthened partnerships with the ministries, government, and public and private institutions. Globally, Bin Huwaireb expanded MBRF’s activities through partnerships with top knowledge institutions such as the University of Oxford, the German Goethe-Institut, the Japanese Culture and Arts Foundation, the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Nobel Foundation, and LinkedIn. As an Emirati historian and a pioneering man of letters, His Excellency is acclaimed for chronicling the cultural and creative movements in Dubai, the UAE, and the wider GCC region.

Dr. Hanada Taha

Dr. Hanada Taha Thomure is the Endowed Professor of Arabic Language education and director of the Zayed Arabic Language Center at Zayed University, UAE. Previously, she served as Associate and Acting Dean of Bahrain Teachers College, University of Bahrain, and director of Arabic programs at San Diego State University, USA.

She has close to 30 years of experience in teacher preservice preparation and in-service training, Arabic Language curriculum design, developing and reviewing national literacy strategies, and literacy coaching. She designed the first system for leveling Arabic texts which is currently used by regional and international publishers to level their Arabic children’s books. More than 8000 books have been leveled free of charge with a grant from Arab Thought Foundation. Dr. Taha Thomure was among the first researchers to develop Arabic language arts standards that have been used by more than 250,000 students. She is the senior author for Pearson’s first Arabic language Arts K-6, a state-of-the-art curriculum that is standards, literature and inquiry-based. She has reviewed the national Arabic curricula for Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE, and Bahrain and has been an adviser for Arab Thought Foundation, Queen Rania Foundation, USAID, DLI, World Bank, Scholastic, and many international schools across the region. Her research is in the field of Arabic language teaching and learning, Arabic children’s literature and teacher preparation and curriculum studies.

Approach to Arabic Language Teaching & Learning

The Hanada Taha approach to Arabic teaching and learning is weaved around the following concepts:

1-Emphasis on the phonetic approach from grades K-2 given that the Arabic language (when vowelized) is quite phonetic and the correspondence between what is read and how it’s written is quite high (unlike English & French, for example which are quite opaque languages).

2-Integrating engaging children’s literature from the first day of school to where children get “hooked” to reading and are exposed to various book genres early on.

3-Using the reading workshop and writing workshop starting in Grade 2 onwards, whereby students get immersed in learning to read through reading and learning to write through engagement with writing.

4-Having Arabic Language Arts standards that are modern, in line with current and future student needs and are skill based.

5-Direct grammar instruction which historically has been the main driver and focus of Arabic T&L is deferred in the Hanada Taha approach and instead a focus on learning patterns especially derivational patterns is emphasized.

6-Focus on morphology in Arabic is a staple of the Hanada Taha approach where students “play” and learn using the most frequently used Arabic roots and their derivations. Morphological awareness is key to this approach.

7-The Arabic language is a poetic and flowery language and using rhetorical devices indirectly as a teaching tool as of grade 1 is important. Historically rhetoric figures of speech in Arabic were only taught in high school. In the Hanada Taha approach that starts in grade 1 using age-appropriate methods that don’t dwell on the details and that helps children to use and enjoy this poetic language.

8-Academic vocabulary and talk in general are another feature of the Hanada Taha approach. Helping learners express themselves in Arabic can lead to them acquiring the confidence needed in the language and can help them think about their thinking (metacognition) with the help of others around them.

Walid Alaa Eldin

Walid Alaa Eldin is an Egyptian poet, novelist, and journalist. Born in 1973, he holds a master’s degree in journalism from the Faculty of Mass Communication at Cairo University, and has been working in Arab cultural journalism since 1996. He currently serves as an advisor at the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), part of the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi).

With several positions held throughout his career, Walid Alaa Eldin had served as head of the cultural department at Al Fajr newspaper in Abu Dhabi, and later at Al Khaleej newspaper’s Abu Dhabi office. He also worked as editor-in-chief of Turath (Heritage) magazine, published in Abu Dhabi, for 11 years.

Alaa Eldin has received several awards, including:

Egyptian War Literature Award / Akhbar Al Adab, in 1996 - short story category

Ghanem Ghubash Award, Emirates Writers Union, in 1997 - short story category

Sharjah Award for Arab Creativity for his play ‘Al Asfour’ (The Bird) in 2007

Sawiris Award for Best Theatrical Script for his play ‘72 Saa’at Aafu’ (72 Hours of Amnesty) in 2015

His notable works include:

‘Tarudduini Lughati Ilayya’ (My Language Brings Me Back to Myself), 2004, poetry, Cairo

‘Al Asfour’ (The Bird), 2006, theatre piece, Sharjah Department of Culture

‘Khatwah bi-Ittisaa Al Azraq’ (A step in the wide blue), 2006, travel literature, National Library in Algeria and Al Suwaidi Publishing House, Abu Dhabi

‘Tufassir Aada’iha lil-Waqt’ (Interpretation of time), 2010, poetry, Safsafa Publishing House, Cairo

‘Habib Al Sayegh, Riyadat Al Shi’r wal-Hayah’ (Habib Al Sayegh, Pioneering Poetry and Life), 2012, criticism, in collaboration with others, Sharjah Department of Culture

‘72 Saa’at Aafu’ (72 Hours of Amnesty), 2015, theatre piece, Egyptian General Authority for Books

‘Al Kitaba ka-Muaadil lil-Hayah’ (Writing as an Equivalent for Life), 2015, criticism, Ministry of Culture in the United Arab Emirates

‘Wahid Masri - Khutab Maftuh Li-Ra'ees Masr’ (One Egyptian - Open Letter to the President of Egypt), 2015, articles, Safsafa Publishing House, Cairo

‘Mawlana Al Muqaddam’ (Our Leader the Prefect!), 2016, theatre piece, Egyptian General Authority for Books

‘Ibn Al Qubtiyya’ (Son of the Coptic Woman), 2016, novel, Khan Publishing House, Cairo, Egypt

‘Shajarah, Watan, Deen – Rasa’il Wahid Masri’ (Tree, Homeland, Religion), 2017, articles, Battana Publishing House, Cairo, Egypt

‘Uqtul Al Zombie’ (Kill the Zombie), 2019, articles, Battana Publishing House, Cairo, Egypt

‘Kimya’, 2019, Al Shorouk Publishing House, Cairo, Egypt ‘Al Ghumaydah’ (Hide and seek), 2020, novel, Al Shorouk Publishing House, Cairo, Egypt

Dr. Paula Santian Grime

Paula Santián Grim is an Arab linguist and translator. She obtained her Ph.D. in Arabic Linguistics from the University of Granada in Spain. She lectures at several Arab and foreign universities, including Pompeu Fabra University in Spain, as well as Middlebury and Michigan universities in the United States, Barcelona University in Spain, and Al Akhawayn University in Morocco.

Dr. Paula is a literary critic and contributes to various international literary journals. She is a translator for three languages (Arabic, English, and Spanish) at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Sadeq Jarrar

Sadeq Jarrar, the Executive Director of the Arab Youth Center, joined the team in mid-2019. His experience extends over 19 years in the field of soft power project management in the Arab region, media consultancy, strategic development, public opinion campaigns, government communication, and crisis management. He has worked for several international institutions and participated in the development and management of media portfolios for numerous conferences, institutions, international exhibitions, specialized training programs, and the publication of specialized articles.

Before joining the Arab Youth Center team, Sadeq headed the Public and Government Affairs team at Apco Worldwide and served as the Head of Communications and Public Relations for Sky News Arabia for over five years. Additionally, he served as the Secretary-General of the Editorial Advisory Committee at the channel. Sadeq has also worked as the Director of Communications and Public Relations at the Dubai Press Club and the Media Office of the Dubai Government. He was a member of the organizing committee of the Arab Media Forum and the Arab Journalism Award, as well as the Director of Research and Content Development for Media Studies under the umbrella of the "Arab Media Outlook" annual report.

Sadeq began his professional career in various international media consulting firms in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Palestine. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Media from Birzeit University and a Higher Diploma from the Royal Institute of Public Relations in London. He is a professional member of both the Royal Institute and the Middle East Public Relations Association.

Mouza Al-Hanaei

Mouza Helal Al-Hanaei is the Manager of Research and Strategy at the Arab Youth Center. She supervises the design and development of research and studies that enhance the understanding of institutions and decision-makers of the orientations and aspirations of young people within the strategic paths of the Arab Youth Center. She also works on a number of projects related to empowering Arab youth in various fields of development work, including capacity building and skills refining. In addition, she manages the Gulf youth file at the center.

Prior to joining the Arab Youth Center in 2020, Moza worked as a researcher and analyst in the political and public affairs file. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Mass Communication from the United Arab Emirates University.

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