Cairo - Hala Arafa - Broadcast:

The artist, Dr. Enas Abdel Dayem, Egyptian Minister of Culture, and Dr. Salem bin Muhammad Al-Malik, Director General of ISESCO, announced the activities of the celebration in Cairo, the capital of culture in the Islamic world 2022, which comes within the framework of the program implemented by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) and will start in mid-February. This was during the press conference held at the Small Theater of the Egyptian Opera House, in the presence of a delegation from the organization, and senior officials of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.

Egyptian Minister of Culture

At first, the Minister of Culture welcomed the guests to the city of “Cairo”, the capital of love, history and peace. The owner, the director general of the organization, has a great effort and insight in developing the organization’s work system in a way that achieves its goals and deepens its great position among the institutions of the Arab world concerned with this field, and stressed that choosing Cairo as the capital of culture for the countries of the Islamic world comes as one of the oldest and most prestigious capitals Arabia, which bears witness to the depth of history, thanks to the tremendous heritage it possesses through its material and intellectual monuments, and its various museums, which include many ancient and modern monuments within its walls, and the diversity of cultures and arts it contains that express all civilizations throughout history, including Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Coptic, Islamic, and others. This occasion, which we are about now, carries with it many positive messages, the most important of which is the ministry’s keenness The Egyptian Culture Department aims to implement the state’s strategy in light of the interest of the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, in all issues related to preserving and preserving the Egyptian heritage at all levels, and making all endeavors that would promote the value of this heritage and the nobility of Egypt among the countries of the whole world. Egypt’s heritage and historical status among the countries of the world, and its rich vocabulary indicates its possession of an ancient civilizational identity, as Cairo is the largest heritage city with leadership in its archaeological vocabulary that expresses the basic features of human civilization in general, and the ancient Islamic civilization in particular, and as a meeting place for cultures through time and ages.

Objective and number of activities

She explained that this selection is supportive and dedicated to the common goal that the ministry and the organization seek to achieve, which is to deepen cultural bonds, enhance cultural communication, highlight the values ​​of coexistence and tolerance, and present a true picture of these contents covered by Islamic civilization, and Cairo will remain as it was since ancient times, the capital of culture and literature, the capital of thought. And art, the capital of inspiration and imagination, the capital of music and opera, the capital of architecture and heritage and the capital of the 1000 minarets, and it is an ancient cultural, intellectual and civilizational center. In implementing its unique program to celebrate the various capitals in the countries of the Islamic world, and its aim of strengthening the fields of constructive cultural cooperation and deepening relations between our peoples, by investing all effective common tools and methods and what these countries possess of ancient civilizational vocabulary, and emphasizing the ability of soft powers to bring about emotional rapprochement between peoples And a bridge for the exchange of diverse visions and creations, and stressed the keenness of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture to put There are serious and ambitious visions regarding the quality of activities and events to be implemented under the agenda of “Choosing Cairo as the Capital of Culture in the Islamic World 2022”, which number nearly fifty cultural, artistic, intellectual and creative activities that embody the most important features of the Egyptian identity with its multiple cultural and heritage contents, and in cooperation with an organization ISESCO, with the participation of all the bodies and sectors in the ministry, wished everyone a fruitful follow-up in which we can achieve all the objectives of this choice and activate more emotional and civilized rapprochement between our peoples.

Director General of ISESCO

ISESCO Director-General, Dr. Salem bin Muhammad, expressed his happiness with the participation of the Minister of Culture in this press meeting that we are holding today to announce the details of the celebration program in Cairo, the capital of culture in the Islamic world, which was scheduled to organize the celebration throughout the year two thousand and twenty, within the schedule of the cultural capitals in which they disappear The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - ISESCO - every year, as the official announcement was made on February 20, 2020, within the activities of the Cairo International Book Fair in its fifty-first edition, about the celebration of Cairo as the capital of culture in the Islamic world in the year 2020, but the circumstances The exceptionality imposed by the Covid 19 pandemic on the countries of the whole world prevented us from organizing this celebration, and also caused the postponement or cancellation of a large number of activities for nearly two years and after this forced postponement, adding, “Today, we meet in the opera house, we announce our intention, God willing, , to organize this celebration during the year two thousand and twenty-two 2022, taking upon us to exert our utmost effort and exert our utmost efforts and energies, in cooperation and coordination with The Egyptian Ministry of Culture and the Egyptian government, so that the celebration will be in line with the aspirations that befit this historical and civilized capital. Perhaps it is harmful and beneficial. This forced postponement has given us the opportunity to review the initial program that we have previously set for this celebration and to update it and enrich it with more cultural and artistic activities and programs and to expand the circle of local and regional partners and to benefit from the new developmental amendments introduced by the General Administration of ISESCO in its program for the capitals of culture in the Islamic world In particular, I would like to highlight the celebrated role of the new cultural facilities and landmarks of the capital as cultural and creative spaces and gatherings that are visited by the wide audience of the city’s residents and outside, and in which intellectuals, artists and creatives are active, which is what Cairo has in its new urban plan. The celebration program also includes activities aimed at strengthening cooperation with the celebrated cultural capitals in other regions of the Islamic world, and with the cultural capitals of Europe, Africa and Latin America.

A variety of cultural activities and events

It is noteworthy that the program of choosing Cairo as the capital of culture in the Islamic world 2022 includes a variety of cultural activities and events that express the Egyptian identity with its various cultural and heritage implications, in cooperation with ISESCO, and with the participation of all bodies and sectors in the ministry, and it includes the production of a documentary film on this occasion directed by Louay Galal. A film week for the countries of the Islamic world, cultural seminars for films, cinematic workshops for the “Start Your Dream” project online in the Islamic world, the participation of a group of films: The Mummy of Egypt - The Lion of the Desert Omar Mukhtar Labba - Falaqah Tunisia - Chronicle of the Years of Ember Algeria - West Beirut Lebanon - Theeb of Jordan - The Deceitful Syria - Nasser Salah al-Din - Jamila Bu Harid - Farewell, Bonaparte - The Complaints of the Eloquent Farmer - Al-Ahram and Before, a cultural evening on “Aesthetics of Mamluk architecture… Sultan Hassan Mosque as a model”, organizing a number of lectures and seminars on “Islamic architecture” A photography exhibition on “The Aesthetics of Historic Cairo”, Seminars on Egyptian Folklore and its Impact on the Countries of the Islamic World, an exhibition of children’s drawings under the title “Egypt in the Eyes of Children” The countries of the Islamic world”, artistic concerts for religious and mystical chanting, an exhibition of reproductions of pictures of Egypt’s mosques “consisting of pictures of a large group of mosques” dating back to 1920, my heritage photography competition “exceptional session” on the countries of the Islamic world, the Fifth Academic Scientific Conference “Cairo” The Capital of Culture in the Islamic World, Cairo in the Eyes of Its Artists exhibition, a musical performance operetta “Here Cairo”, the production of a theatrical show that includes a “collage” of the most important religious works produced in recent years, including: Forty Rules of Love - as if you see it - the owner of a shrine Various artistic concerts that combine the arts of music and singing, Arab and Islamic Ramadan nights, evenings organized in cooperation with the Arab and Islamic embassies in Cairo, an international conference entitled “Cairo’s Intangible Heritage in a Thousand Years” and aims to highlight the intangible heritage of the city of Cairo as a melting pot of many Elements of this living heritage, the “Talaat al-Mahmal” festival, will be held over two days, accompanied by a number of activities, including: a Moulawiya dance, religious chanting, traditional crafts associated with Islamic heritage, Sufi banners, photographic exhibitions and Drawing, a conference for the realization of heritage and the consolidation of identity, accompanied by an exhibition of reproductions of the most important Islamic manuscripts preserved in the Dar al-Kutub, a meeting in the cultural park for three days under the title “Children of the Islamic World in the Rehab of Cairo”, an exhibition of heritage crafts with the participation of a number of countries, the Cairo International Forum for the Arts of Arabic Calligraphy The seventh session, a number of activities and events in heritage Cairo, the re-presentation of the show “Cairo in a Thousand Years”, the presentation of the theatrical performance “The Minarets of Al-Mahrousa” for a period of 3 days, the announcement of the prizes for my heritage in photography and the opening of the photo exhibition participating in the “exceptional session” for the countries of the world The Islamic, publications about Cairo, the capital of culture in the Islamic world, in cooperation with the National Center for Translation, the publication of a catalog of children’s paintings under the title “Cairo in the eyes of the children of the Islamic world”, a coloring poster design about the most important monuments of Islamic Cairo, especially the area around Sayeda Zeinab Garden (the Citadel - Al-Masjid-Al-Sabila-Majra Al-Ayoun Wall), the Ministry’s reissue of the book “Cairo in a thousand years 969AD-1969AD”, which was printed to celebrate the Millennium of Cairo in the year in six languages: (Arabic-English-Al French-Spanish-Russian-German), by the late Minister of Culture Dr. Tharwat Okasha.

Why Cairo?

Choosing the city of Cairo as the capital of culture in the Islamic world for 2022 comes as an initiative by ISESCO, given the ancient city, after it was not possible to celebrate this city during the year 2020, and because a city the size of Cairo cannot be celebrated from a distance, it will also represent a turning point in ISESCO program in its new view to celebrate and introduce the major cities and metropolises of the Islamic world, and as the first capital within this new vision to be adopted by the Conference of Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World, in its twelfth session, and also this choice comes, along with the city of Rabat, the first city celebrated during the period that will follow. Covid-19 pandemic.

Also, this city, which is the largest Arab city in terms of population and area, occupies second place in Africa, and seventeenth in the world in terms of population, has been registered on the World Heritage List in the Islamic world since 2019 AD, and on the World Heritage List since 1979 AD, which is of great importance. At the regional and international level, it is an incubator for many regional and global organizations, where the headquarters of the League of Arab States are located, and the regional offices of the World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Civil Aviation Organization, International Telecommunication Union, United Nations Population Fund, United Nations For women, the headquarters of the United Nations Development Program, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations, in which the modern urban fabric inherited from the late colonial era is intertwined with the traditional architectural fabric inherited from the early Islamic period.

In addition, there are usually a number of conditions and ingredients in the city to be celebrated as the capital of culture in the Islamic world, but the city of Cairo has all the ingredients to be an important cultural capital, uniting between East, West, North and South, as it represented a great cultural meeting point except that it was between Countries of the Islamic world or outside it, and its most prominent components are:

- Physical and intellectual monuments that deserve to be known and valued, the first of which is the Pyramids of Giza, which is one of the wonders of the world that is still firmly established in the city, as Cairo has witnessed many different historical eras throughout the ages, and there are many ancient and modern monuments, so it became an open museum that includes Pharaonic and Greek antiquities. Roman, Coptic and Islamic, and the history of the city dates back to the emergence of the pharaonic city of On or Heliopolis (currently Ain Shams), which is one of the oldest cities in the ancient world.

As for Cairo, in its current style, its history goes back to the Islamic conquest of Egypt by Amr ibn al-Aas in 641 AD and his establishment of the city of Fustat, then the establishment of the Abbasid city of the city of al-Askar. The essence of the Sicilian in building the new capital of the Fatimid state by order of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Muizz Li-Din Allah in the year 969 AD, and the Caliph called it “Cairo” and gave Cairo - throughout the ages - many names, as it is the city of a thousand minarets, the guarded Egypt and Cairo Al-Muizz, and Cairo witnessed During the Islamic era, the finest architecture was represented in the construction of castles, forts, walls, schools and mosques, which gave it an aesthetic glimpse that is still present in its old neighborhoods until now.

The large number of cultural institutions, led by the Egyptian National Cultural Center - the Opera House, the Egyptian National Center for Child Culture, the Public Library of Egypt, the National Center for Translation, the Museum of Islamic Art, the Museum of Islamic Antiquities, the Coptic Museum, Abdeen Palace Museums, and other institutions that Countless in every corner of the city.

- Distinguished contributions in various fields of culture through literary, artistic, scientific and cultural works of its scholars, writers, intellectuals and artists, and inspired a large number of painters, intellectuals and creators throughout the ages.

Cairo, in particular, and Egypt in general, host the largest cultural festivals and seasons each year, such as the Cairo International Film Festival, book and drawing fairs, and theatrical performances, the most important of which is the Cairo Book Fair, which attracts a large number of interested people each year, among others.

It is worth noting that ISESCO is an international, non-profit organization specialized in the fields of education, science and culture, branching off from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Its headquarters is Rabat, the capital of the Kingdom of Morocco is the headquarters of ISESCO.

The organization may establish centers, offices or institutions affiliated to it or under its supervision in any other country, by a decision of the General Conference, and based on a proposal from the Executive Council of ISESCO.

Its vision is to be a beacon of international radiation in education, science, culture and communication, and one of the tasks it performs

The forward-looking and coordinating leadership of the efforts of the Islamic world in the fields of education, science, technology, culture, communication, humanities and social sciences

Coordinating efforts aimed at developing educational policies for member states and their educational systems.

Mobilizing a stronger commitment in the countries of the Islamic world to cultural development in its comprehensive and integrated dimensions.

Assisting the countries of the Islamic world in the field of localizing scientific research, innovation and technological development.

Laying the methodological and cognitive foundations for a participatory contract between all social groups in the member states.

Stimulating the reciprocal approach to best practices at the Islamic and international levels, through strengthening the regional and international partnership.

Establishing educational and cultural rules and foundations to enhance identity and empower it internationally.

Objectives that ISESCO seeks to achieve

Achieving interdependence, integration and strategic coordination among the countries of the Islamic world in their respective fields of competence.

- Strengthening the capabilities of the educational systems and improving their indicators in the member states.

Stimulating the comprehensive cultural development of the peoples of the Islamic world.

Accelerate the accession of the countries of the Islamic world to the group of developed countries.

- Improving the member states’ management of their social transformations.

Achieving sustainability and efficiency in cooperation programs related to the organization’s fields of work.