DOHA: Vodafone yesterday launched the second edition of its literary competition, under the patronage of the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage
H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari.
This is also the second year the Minister has backed the contest and was thanked for support at the launch by Vodafone Qatar’s Chairman Sheikh Dr Khalid bin Thani Al Thani.
The Minister of Sports and Youth H E Salah bin Ghanim Al Ali and Kyle Whitehill, CEO, Vodafone Qatar, were also present along with other officials.
The first edition was held last December 2013 to help preserve the Arabic language, encourage creative writing, celebrate the beauty of the written Arabic word and pay tribute to National Day.
It proved to be a great success with over 100 short story and novel submissions.
In line with the theme of this year’s National Day celebrations, the verse ‘I treated you with honesty, guidance and integrity’, from a poem written by Qatar’s Founder Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, has been chosen as the title for this year’s competition.
“We commend Vodafone for the role they are playing in encouraging reading and writing in Arabic and I and the ministry have given them our full support,” said the Minister.
Mohammed Al Yami, Director, External Affairs, Vodafone Qatar, said, “We are proud to bring this competition for the second year in a row to encourage the preservation one of the most important threads of our Arabic culture and tradition.
“We are grateful for the support and encouragement we have received from the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage
H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, which has been essential to the success of the initiative.
“It is meaningful that we are aligning this year’s competition with National Day’s theme to give people a means to express their love for this country.
“I would like to thank the Minister of Sports and Youth and Head of the National Day Celebrations Organising Committee H E Salah bin Ghanim Al Ali for his support to align our competition with the theme for National Day celebrations,” he added.
The launch was followed by a seminar that looked into the art and history of story writing in Qatar. Qatari literary figures- Dr Ahmed Abdelmalik, Jamal Fayez, Dr Huda Al Nuaimi, Mohsen Al Hajiri and Hessa Al Awadi led discussion which was warmly received by the audience.
The contest is open to all citizens and residents until February 13, 2015 and the submissions for both categories must be in Arabic.
Category 1: Taking inspiration from the competition’s title ‘I treated you with honesty, guidance and integrity’, submissions have to be in the form of a short story between 500 and 1,000 words.
Category 2: Submissions have to be a collection of stories on any subject and not less than 10 and not more than 100 pages.
The panel of judges – Qatari literary and luminary experts – will convene in February 2015 to choose the winners of the QR145,000 prize pot and the winners will be announced in March 2015. Artist Ali Hassan Al Jaber gifted paintings to the Ministers at the launch.
The Peninsula
