The Qatari Forum for Authors (QFA), in cooperation with the Qatar Committee for Education, Culture and Science (QCECS), celebrates for the third year in a row World Arabic Language Day, held each year on December 18, by hosting a series of rich and varied events, seminars and workshops over a period of three months.
In its communiqué of yesterday, QFA stated that a series of events revolving around the Arabic language will be held in cooperation with various relevant authorities at the national, Arab and international levels, with the participation of dozens of people interested in the Arabic language from all over the world. It clarified that the cooperation between the Forum and QCECS is the result of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two parties in September 2019, and is based on the competencies of the Ministry of Culture, which focuses to a large extent on Arab identity and culture, especially after the designation of Doha as the 2021 Capital of Islamic Culture by the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO).
The Arabic language, also known as the language of Ḍād, is celebrated this year under the theme “Arabic Language and Civilizational Communication,” which was approved by the United Nations. It is a call to reaffirm the important role that the Arabic language plays in building bridges of communication between people in a large number of fields, including culture, science and literature. The purpose of this theme, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is to highlight the historical role played by the Arabic language as a tool for knowledge creation and transmission, as well as a means to promote dialogue and lay the foundations for peace. The UNESCO also emphasized that the 2021 theme is of paramount importance for societies where globalization, digitization and multilingualism are on the rise, as it recognizes the changing nature of the world and the urgent need to strengthen dialogue among nations and peoples. It is worth noting that the Arabic language constitutes the cornerstone of the cultural diversity of mankind, and it is one of the most widely used languages in the world. The world celebrates World Arabic Language Day on December 18 of each year, a date chosen specifically because the UN General Assembly made its historic decision on December 18, 1973 to adopt Arabic as the organization’s sixth official language.