Realising the Potential of Arab Women in the Private and Public Sectors

Representatives from both the public and private sector discussed the means to optimize the contribution of Arab women in the development of the region during the first U.S.-based conference of the Arab International Women’s Forum (AIWF), hosted by the World Bank Middle East North Africa in Washington, D.C. recently

The conference, titled ‘Partners for Change: Realizing the Potential of Arab Women in the Private and Public Sector,’ drew participants from over 20 countries including the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East. It gathered Arab and international policymakers in an attempt to stimulate dialogue aimed at removing roadblocks to women’s gainful participation in Arab politics, economies and society.

Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank, argued that Arab women, given the right environment, could be successful entrepreneurs, influential political leaders, and formidable global business managers. Pointing to the findings of a recent Bank report, he said, “While only 13% of firms or companies in the Middle East are owned by women, there is no significant difference in terms of size, age, sector, exports, and foreign direct investment to those firms owned by men”. Successful women entrepreneurs from all over the Middle East also gathered during the two day conference to hear ministers including HE Dr. Sharifa Khalfan Al Yahyai, Minister of Social Development in Oman, HE Hala Bseisu Lattouf, Minister of Social Development in Jordan, and HE Dr Huda Ali Al-Ban, Minister of Human Rights in Yemen, talk about the gains women have made in the region.

Speakers also argued, however, that much progress was still needed in the region. Despite the rising number of young Arab women enrolled in higher education, which has resulted in a pool of qualified potential employees, research showed that the number of graduates who actually moved into the work force in countries within the MENA region remains low.

Nadereh Chamlou, Senior Advisor and gender specialist for the MENA region, expressed confidence that the conference had “showcased these accomplished, dedicated and successful Arab women as role models for future generations in the Middle East, a side to Arab women that is not adequately covered in the media.”

Haifa Fahoum Al-Kaylani, Founder and Chair of AIWF, said, “AIWF was established in 2001 as a non-profit organization aimed at bringing together women from the Arab world with those from across the international community. Our goal is to serve as the voice of Arab women in business and government, through a series of global initiatives, conferences, and programmes. It is truly representative of the direction that the region is taking, and of our continuing commitment to the promotion of cross-cultural diversity, connectivity and understanding between the Arab world and the international community through women.”

The conference was supported by a number of AIWF’s global corporate partners, including PepsiCo International, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Shell and DLA Piper.

HE Hala Bseisu Lattouf, Minister of Social Development in Jordan, Mrs. Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani, Chairman Arab International Women's Forum, Mr Robert Zoellick, President, The World Bank HE, Dr. Sharifa Khalfan Al Yahyai, Minister of Social Development in Oman, HE Dr Huda Ali Al-Ban, Minister of Human Rights in Yemen.

Arab International Women’s Forum

Founded in 2001 as an independent, non-profit organisation, the Arab International Women’s Forum has served as a voice for Arab women in business and in government, showcasing their contribution to economic growth and development in the Arab region and globally. Headquartered in London and led by a voluntary Board of Trustees, AIWF brings growing numbers of influential, progressive women in corporate, academic and public life from 22 Arab countries together with their counterparts in Europe, the Americas, Africa and beyond, to foster closer cooperation and realize the full potential of Arab women in achieving progress, prosperity and development in the region.

© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

ran stages Persian Gulf missile tests amid warnings to its 'enemies'

CAIRO -- With U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf and the rhetoric between Iran and Israel growing heated, Tehran announced today that it had test-fired nine missiles, including at least one capable of striking Israel and other American interests in the Middle East.

The missiles were fired during military exercises staged by Iran's Revolutionary Guards near the strategic oil shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. State television quoted one of Iran's top military leaders, Gen. Hossein Salami, as saying the war games in the Persian Gulf would "demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language."The launches were the latest drama in the standoff over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says will produce power for civilian use. The West and Israel, however, allege that Iran is intent on building a bomb.

The missiles streaked into the desert sky as U.S. and British ships were on military maneuvers in the gulf, and just days after disclosures that Israel had conducted long-range military exercises last month as a rehearsal for a possible strike on Iran.

Iranian TV showed three simultaneous launches, including a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which Tehran claims carries a 1-ton conventional warhead and can travel 1,250 miles, well within the range of U.S. troops in Iraq, the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain and American allies such as Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Iran said earlier this week that it would retaliate against U.S. and Israeli interests in the region if its nuclear facilities were attacked.

"Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch," the official IRNA news agency quoted Salami as saying today.

The launches came a day after seemingly contradictory statements from top Iranian officials. A spokesman for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, said Tel Aviv and the U.S. fleet in the gulf would "burst into flames" if Tehran were attacked. But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, usually the official leading the bellicose rhetoric, appeared to soften the atmosphere by saying that the prospect of Israel and the U.S. striking Iran was a "funny joke" and that there "won't be any war" in the future.

"The Iranian regime only furthers the isolation of the Iranian people from the international community when it engages in this sort of activity," said Gordon Johndroe, deputy White House press secretary, speaking from Japan where President Bush is attending the Group of Eight summit. "They should also refrain from further missile tests if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was traveling in Bulgaria, said the test launches were "evidence that the missile threat is not an imaginary one."

Israel's reaction to the test was low-key. Government spokesman Mark Regev said the Jewish state "does not desire hostility and conflict with Iran. But it is clear that the Iranian nuclear program and the Iranian ballistic missile program is a matter of grave concern."

Tehran and the West are expected to resume talks on Iran's nuclear program later this month. But there appears to little progress. On Saturday, Iranian government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham, an Ahmadinejad loyalist, reiterated Iran's long-standing position that it won't stop producing nuclear material, a highly technical process that involves running uranium gas through spinning centrifuges. The uranium enriched to a lower quality can be used as fuel for civilian power plants; highly enriched material can be made into nuclear weapons.

jeff.fleishman@latimes.com

Times staff writer Richard Boudreaux in Jerusalem and special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report.

Students Study the Middle East, But on Their Own

By Margaret Ernst

Talking to Dina Rubey ‘09 is like talking to a textbook on recent Middle Eastern history, but that wasn’t always the case. “I grew up in New York City, and I probably couldn’t have told you where the Middle East was on the map,” she said. “But then 9/11 happened. It’s so easy to be totally oblivious about what’s going on around you, let alone across the ocean.” As a freshman, Rubey took Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies, which included an online-facilitated discussion between Arab students and American students called “Soliya”; since then she says she hasn’t looked back.

Rubey has focused on the Middle East as a political science major, complemented by her own version of an independent major in Mideast Studies—a concentration in comparative politics, minors in Peace and Conflict Studies and developmental economics, and a semester abroad at the American University in Cairo. “I thought I would study abroad in Paris, major in English,” she said. “I never would have expected I would go to Cairo.”

There is currently no Middle East Studies major at Bryn Mawr, nor is there a minor, concentration, nor a department, but there is an initiative. The Middle East Studies Initiative was so named five years ago, according to Professor Deborah Harrold, who teaches many of the Initiative’s classes, and its goal is to bring more classes on the Middle East into the Bryn Mawr curriculum. But as more students enter the College with an interest in the region, their lives shaped by 9/11 and the events that followed it, the current Middle East Studies Initiative may be forced to assume greater clout than its name implies.

“Bryn Mawr has been hiring more professors who teach about the region, offering more classes, and especially considering our new president is a Qur’an scholar, it seems like a good time to do it,” said Jesse Solomon ’11, referring to her plans to design an independent major in Mideast Studies. Unlike many students who study the Middle East in the context of a specific discipline, Solomon feels that she will learn the most about the region by getting as much background as possible—background that is inherently interdisciplinary.

“I’m not sure exactly what the major will look like, except that I like being able to get so many perspectives,” she said. When she entered in the fall Solomon assumed she would major in political science, but as she explored the curriculum within the Tri-Co and Penn, she started to consider how her interest in the Middle East could turn into a major. “Between the Tri-Co and Penn, there will be enough classes for me to take,” said Solomon. “But the only problem is that they tend to be very similar.”

For Rubey, the requirements of a political science major have allowed her to view her specialty in the context of a larger and highly connected world. “Right now I’m taking a modern Latin American history class, and it’s infuriating how similar it is,” she said. This summer she will travel to Nicaragua for an internship, where she sees blatant parallels to current events in the Middle East. “Twenty years ago, the whole world was falling down in Nicaragua, with America playing the same role—with some of the same last names as the people who are making the same mistakes now.”

To avoid mistakes when it comes to the Middle East, be they in diplomacy or literature, one of the first steps to understanding the region is understanding Arabic; currently at Bryn Mawr, however, many feel there is a disconnect between the two. Though as of last year Bryn Mawr and Haverford students have finally been able to take Arabic classes on their own campuses, the Arabic program is still based out of the modern languages department at Swarthmore and students have experienced the problems inherent in participating in a program from forty minutes away.

Solomon says that although her Arabic professors and drill instructors are brilliant, the program at Swarthmore restricts how they are able to teach. “We learn from a very old book that relies on wrote memorization,” she said. “Swat’s program drills in this idea, and it’s hard for professors who want to bring culture into it.” Solomon thinks Bryn Mawr could do much better by overseeing its own professors and in general, running its own program.

“This is the first year of the tri-co program, and it’s still going through growing pains,” said Professor Kim, who teaches Arabic at Bryn Mawr and Haverford. He sees that many of his students want to supplement their language study with other courses about the region, and he hopes that the Arabic program can be more integrated with the Middle East Studies Initiative in the future. “If there is a concentration in Middle East Studies there would be better integration between language and the content classes,” he said. “Right now, in many ways, the Arabic program is a separate entity.”

He says that problems associated with teaching Arabic are not just unique unto the Tri-Co, however. “Recently there has been a lot of student interest in the country, but there are just not enough qualified teachers out there,” he said, explaining why Bryn Mawr and Haverford have had to piggyback onto Swarthmore’s program.

There is also a challenge that has to do with the language itself; in the Tri-Co and wherever Arabic is taught, one learns Modern Standard Arabic, the strict, formal dialect that is rarely actually spoken in the Middle East. Though newscasters broadcast in Modern Standard, only colloquial dialects are heard in the streets; in other words, though Professor Kim thinks language training is essential to non-western studies, studying Arabic at Bryn Mawr and then in the Middle East is very different from studying French in Paris.

Rubey admits that taking Arabic in the U.S. would not have necessarily helped her get by on a day to day basis in Egypt. “It’s very rare that people use Modern Standard in their daily life. It’s like if someone addressed you using Shakespearean English.” Regardless, she wishes that she had had some background before she left. “I wish I had taken Arabic before, and I wish that Bryn Mawr and Haverford made it easier for people to take Arabic.”

Mawrtyrs interested in Middle East Studies currently have to be creative with their curriculum, but from a westward angle, creativity is often essential when talking about the Middle East. “If you want to know what’s going on, it doesn’t mean just reading the New York Times,” said Rubey. “It means reading Al-Jazeera, and it means actually talking to people from there.”

Whether motivated by current events or simple curiosity, student interest is forcing the Arabic program at Bryn Mawr to find its roots in the bi-college community. “So many people ask me how Arabic is and say they want to take it next year,” said Solomon. At the same time, the Middle East Studies Initiative will have to turn the mirror on itself to see how it can be a home for those who want to know exactly “what’s going on over there.”

This article is © 2008 The Bi-College News। The material on this page is free for personal or educational use, but may not be reproduced, reprinted, republished, redistributed, or otherwise transmitted to a third party without the express written permission of The Bi-College News, 370 Lancaster Ave, Haverford, PA 19041.

http://www.biconews.com/?p=7175

"So You Think You Can Dance" mini-cap: the season opens with some returning talent

by

Jamie Anderson
http://www.afterellen.com/blog/jamieanderson/so-you-think-you-can-dance-mini-cap-the-season-opens-with-some-returning-talent?&comment=509887

On the first episode of the new season, we’re treated to an overview of the first three seasons with the graceful Sabra winning last year, my man Benji winning the year before and … someone winning the first season. (Was anyone watching that year? I think I was too busy breaking up with my girlfriend. You too?)

All photos by Jamie Horton/FOX

Then we get an summary of the dancers to come with a montage of falling dancers, turning dancers, crying dancers, beautiful contemporary dancers, some breakers, some spinning on the head dancers … you get the idea. After the auditions in Los Angeles and five other cities, a herd of dancers lands in Las Vegas where they audition some more. There will be 20 contestants total, along with host Cat Deeley (who is always there with her glorious smile and we thank the deity of your choice for that), judges Nigel Lythgoe and the squeal-a-minute Mary Murphy. A guest judge fills the third slot, and for this first episode, it was my TV girlfriend Mia Michaels, who will also choreograph some of the pieces in later shows. Not only has she won an Emmy for her work in a previous season, but she’s also choreographed for Madonna and Cirque du Soleil, when she’s not busy spending the night at my house.

The first dancer does a great job … of standing still. Heart’s “Barracuda” is blasting away but she’s not moving a muscle. The music stops and one of the judges asks, “Wrong music?” No, dunderhead, she’s dancing in her mind. The right music – a lovely ballad – starts up and Devin Oshiro does a beautiful job with fluid movements that perfectly match the music. Micheals – I sometimes use her last name, which see likes – says that she’s sensational and if she’s this good now, she’ll be stupid in the finals. (That’s Mia-speak for amazing.) Of course, OShiro gets a ticket to Vegas.

We’re then treated to an Italian dude who charmingly informs Deeley that the difference between American men and Italian men is hair. Italians have lots of it. (Um, TMI.) Deeley doesn’t blink and notes that he must have shaved his chest so of course he puffs it out to show off his sculpted muscles and washboard abs as every gay boy in America faints from the beauty of it. I, however, am not moved. And neither are the judges, exactly. While it’s clear he’s watched Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” one million times, he’s not quite up to the American standard, as dryly noted by the judges. Michaels starts to tell him he won’t be successful in this country but slips and says “sexcessful.” (No, Michaels, that would be Cat Deeley.) Still, they want to give him a chance so he’s told he’ll be participating in the choreography. This is an additional round of auditions for those who don’t get a direct pass to Vegas.

And then Sex is back. No, I don’t mean the hot girl lust going on over on Grey’s Anatomy (admit it, I know you’ve been sneaking peaks while SYTYCD is on), but the guy named Sex, who is not sexy. He comes with his mother, noted as his biggest fan. (More like, his only fan.) He does a pelvis swiveling mess that might pass for dancing if everyone in the room was doing crack. Michaels slips and says he was really good at some point in one of his three auditions. (Quick! Hug her real close and tell her the hallucinations will stop soon!) When she collapses in laughter, we can wipe our brows because we know she’s kidding. I kind feel sorry for the guy as he goes on about the many, many, many years of extensive dance training he has. (Yes, that’s three “many’s”.)

The next contestant, Laura Garcia, is from Tucson, my perfect home town — land of great Mexican food, awesome music and gorgeous mountains. I’m leaning forward, wanting her to smash the competition but regrettably, she’s not yet at a professional level. What is cool, though, is that she’s visually impaired – even needing help to find her starting spot on the stage – and still does a beautiful job. Lythgoe comments that to allow her to the next round would only be patronizing and she nods in agreement. Micheals is sobbing as she tells Garcia how much she appreciates the passion in her work and goes on to say that a dancer close to her recently lost their sight. See, this is why Mia – I’ll use her first name here -- is my TV girlfriend. This isn’t just a show where she can parade her accomplishments. These dancers mean something to her.

Twitch auditioned last year, and he’s back to show us what he’s learned since. Lord have mercy, he’s good – his pops and slides are art. Murphy tells him he’s slick and stupid. (See, she learned that from my girlfriend.) Michaels demonstrates “stank face” which is a good thing. There’s no doubt that Twitch is going to Vegas. Deeley is waiting around the corner for him, casually sitting on a stairway and asks him if he has any news for her. Now I’m dreaming that around every corner is Cat Deeley, asking me for news. How freakin’ beautiful would that be?

Another dancer cut last season, Phillip Chbeeb, does some popping and locking that doesn’t look real. I swear he dislocates his shoulders more than once. His bag of tricks elicits many “Wows” and “Oh my gods” from the judges and rightly so. Dude is so going to Vegas.

There’s another montage, this one focused on clothing. We see a dancer in striped socks and baggy red pants, a guy in a tie, a dude in a big feather scarf and a sequin bedecked bellydancer. Bellydancer?! Girl howdy, that’s MY specialty. They show her for one and a half seconds. Although she’s doing some sexy hip accents and has a lovely smile, that’s all we see of her. No fair — they did this in an earlier season: We get a brief shot of a bellydancer, then they zoom off to some head spinning hip hopper. Bellydancers aren’t just one trick ponies, people. (Okay, I’ll get off the soap box. Maybe my TV girlfriend will console me.)

We get a glimpse of the choreography round. Arrogant Italian guy doesn’t make it but Wingfield and Chbeeb do (yay!)

Day two of the LA auditions brings us more of the same. Erika Gee is a pretty blond who calls herself a starving professional dancer. Honey, most professional dancers are starving, unless they’re Madonna. (Um, not that it’s right, I’m just sayin’.) It’s her third try and apparently, the third time’s a charm: Michaels calls her lovely and she’s put through to Vegas.

Contestant Randy Lewis dances like a drunk guy at a late night wedding reception, eliciting an “Ew!” from one of the judges. I concur. His hiney wiggle is cute though.

Next we’re treated to some amazing hip-hop from Victor Kim. His head slides are so good, I’m convinced his spine has detached. He spends a whole lot of time spinning on his hands and – get this – on his freakin’ elbow. We know he’s ending when he walks down the stage steps on his hands and plops down in a chair in the audience. Wow.

Then, there’s the Gold Inferno. Please tell me this is a frat initiation and not a man who’s seriously auditioning. His “jump style” is just that – a lot of twitching and jumping, on one foot, then the other, then both, then … oh, I don’t care. I’m happy he’s wearing a gold mask with a black mesh front so I don’t have to see his eyes. I’ll bet they’re evil in a Chucky kind of way.

Another ballroom couple is next, dancing to a Latin number. You’re know they’re doing well when the camera cuts to Murphy who’s grinning like she’s eaten a box of very good imported chocolate. Ballroom is her specialty so when Murhpy’s happy, we’re happy. It’s even more amazing when you know that Asuka Kondoh, the woman of the pair (her partner is Ricky Sun) has been sick for a few days. Where she gets the energy to dance like that, I don’t know. They must be making some powerful decongestant these days. The couple is sent directly to Vegas, as they should be.

My hopes rise when I realize the next dancer is a soccer player. I may not be a sports fan but babes, I love me some jocks. There are clips of her chasing around a soccer ball and talking about how’s she’s a tomboy. The yum factor rises. I start humming Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby.” Then she talks about wanting to be all girlie. (Okay, okay, I can do this.) Her contemporary dance is quite nice. Murphy screams, “I think she needs to go to Vegas!” We get it, Murphy. Dial it back, Lythgoe needs his hearing. So do the engineers in the control room. So do we.

It’s getting later in the day but still the waiting dancers are going like there’s no end to their batteries. (Where can I buy some of those batteries? I’m tired of recharging my MP3 player.) We see a pastiche of rejected dancers including one long haired beauty who whines that the judges “didn’t like her pants” and that they’re “racist against tall people.” Whatever.

Robert Muraine does some really scary – that’s scary good – twists and contortions that any circus would be happy to have. He must also dislocate his shoulders but his head? How did he do that? He uses his whole body including great facial expressions and HE WRAPS HIS FOOT AROUND HIS SHOULDERS AND UNDER HIS CHIN. It’s all crazy good. He runs up to Lythgoe to get his ticket to Vegas and in the last few feet goes into slow-mo. So does Lythgoe. It’s poetry, man. Who knew an older guy like Lythgoe could move like that? Send him to Vegas! (Oh yeah, he’s a judge so he’s already going.)

Lastly, we get another brief glimpse of the choreography round with Vegas bound people doing their happy dance afterwards. Sadly, Victor Kim doesn’t make it but Ricky Sun and Asuka Kondoh do.

For the next episode they’re going to Salt Lake City and Dallas. Bring it on — as long as Cat Deeley is waiting around the corner with her bullhorn, I’m there.

Japan regrets anime insult to Quran

Japan regrets anime insult to Quran
Sat, 24 May 2008 09:55:36

Tokyo calls for more respect for religions after an offensive anime sparked Muslim fury with its tacit attempt to provoke Islamophobia.

''While it resulted from carelessness, the Japanese government considers it regrettable that Muslims' feelings were hurt by the content of some of the cartoon,'' Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Kazuo Kodama said Friday.

''In any case, we think it is important to prevent a recurrence by fostering understanding and respect for other religions and cultures.''

The statement came a day after the cartoon creators, Shueisha Inc and Another Push Pin Planning Co, apologized for 'inappropriate scenes' in their anime series.

While the company apologized for offending Muslims, they insisted the details had simply been overlooked, claiming they meant no disrespect to the Quran.

The offensive cartoon depicts a villain picking up a Quran from a bookshelf and apparently examining it as he ordered the execution of the hero and his friends.

NAT/AA
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=57118&sectionid=351020406

Away from politics, Arab women sing

BY DR BOUTHAINA SHAABAN (Arab View)

24 May 2008 http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2008/May/opinion_May93.xml&section=opinion&col=

On the 60th anniversary of Al Nekbah, it has become clear more than ever before that there are two worlds, two concepts and two prospects for the Middle East, especially as far as the Arab-Israeli conflict is concerned.

The international media was busy highlighting the 60th anniversary of the birth of Israel to a total negligence of the plight and right of the Palestinian people. The Israelis have always taken pride in the so-called Balfour Declaration. At the same time they have done everything that goes against the wording and the spirit of Balfour Declaration itself.

When Balfour promised a national home for the Jews in Palestine, he stressed that "it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine".

Balfour described the non-Jewish communities as 'minorities' despite the fact the Arabs were a majority in their land. Nevertheless, Israel has done everything during these sixty years to undermine the rights, history, and the very identity of these communities, through killing, transfer and systematic erasure of indigenous people and replacing them with white and African settlers who have never been in Palestine.

It has become clear from the story of Palestine that serves as the prism for the story of the Arabs, that the Arabs are being systematically marginalised in the world affairs. What is happening in Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, and Somalia is a clear evidence of that. Moreover, the Arabs are losing their crafts, history and even language, which are being replaced by non-indigenous way of life.

The international media is totally biased against the Arabs and the laws issued in the West after 9/11 have a racist tinge against Arabs and Muslims. The Arabs are watching in disbelief what is happening to them, hoping that somehow their rights will be restored and their future will be theirs. But the problem is that this aggression against the Arabs is no longer limited to the political domain: their culture, language, food and way of life are all under attack. A new strategy in this attack is the infiltration of Arab people, so that some of them will adopt the colonial agenda against their people and fight them if necessary.

That is why Palestinian people, Iraqi people, Sudanese and the Somalis differ on the very definition of the national interests and how to defend these interests. Otherwise how do we explain some Palestinian negotiating with the Israelis but refusing to talk to their own brothers who just like them are faced a cruel Israeli occupation?

Hence, we can realise the arrogance of those targeting the Arab identity, as they possess the military means and the political power to terrorise and subjugate the Arabs. Added to this is the fact that international media is run, directly or indirectly, by people who occupy Arab lands

The factors that prolong and enhance this process have also something to do with the Arabs' failure to understand, strategise and design the correct mechanism to face this new evolving and difficult reality. The Arabs meet, talk and issue statements, but they do not put to use the mechanisms or the money needed for implementation.

Our enemies know this very well and exploit it. As the Arab media has also become mostly receptive to international media, there is hardly any credible source that presents the genuine and independent Arab perspective.

The best way out of this vicious circle is for the Arabs to change focus and highlight their points of strength from civilisation to history, language, crafts and values for which they are renowned. There are so many conferences, festivals, panels and seminars held at an Arab level almost every day, but they are not highlighted and celebrated in the media, although they will be so heartening and encouraging to young generations if they were.

To give only one example, Damascus as the capital of Arab culture embraced a number of Arab women singers from Morocco to Iraq who sang every evening in Al Azem Palace, Damascus. It was interesting to see the thousands of people in the audience responding so warmly and heartily to every singer because the tunes, the culture, the history and the language, of course, are the same.

In art, culture, literature and language, the Arab identity is deeply rooted and it is a source of pride to all of us. It is this identity that should be the focal point of all our efforts seeking to restore the balance in our favour.

The political domain is no longer the only one that should be the focus of our attention but the cultural, literary, legal, economic and artistic all should be taken very seriously. Once we do that we will be elevating the points of Arab strength that will serve Arabs' political stance and status. Once we do that, Israel would not dare to suggest erasing the word 'Nakbah' from the lexicon of the UN because this word embodies rights usurped, lands confiscated, towns and villages colonised and indigenous people killed or made homeless so it cannot be crossed without setting all these issues. The road to settlement, however, is not only political but it is cultural, economic, legal, historical and artistic.

Dr Bouthaina Shaaban is Syria's Minister for Expatriate Affairs and foreign policy spokesperson for the Syrian government