The Qatari Forum for Authors launched new creative publications for a group of writers and authors. Publications are various including biography, writing long and short fiction of realistic sense and social and economic issues.
At the beginning of the session, Mrs. Maryam Yassin Al Hammadi, Director General of the Qatari Forum for Authors, revealed the issue of 150 books in various types of knowledge and authorship since the beginning of this year despite the current difficulties related to Corona Pandemic (Covid-19) and postponing Doha International Book Fair. She described this matter as the great achievement of authors who were able to publish their books.
Mr. Ahmed Ali Al-Ansari, the former diplomat and old athlete, presented his introduction to his book entitled “Youth and talking about memories” in which he talks in two chapters about his sports and diplomatic biography as he worked as the State’s ambassador to Pakistan and several countries. The first part deals with sports and how it entered Qatar while the second part deals with definition of what the youth stage is, what are their ambitions and what they are required to present to the state.
Also, the book of the critic Dr. Imtenan Al Smadi, entitled “The Coat Girl” was launched. It is a group of regular short stories of old traditional structure in addition to 30 very short stories of modern structural style and don’t exceed 3 or 4 lines.
Also, the book entitled “There is Peace in my Soul” written by the writer Maitha Sultan was launched. She confirmed that the book talks about characters we see every day and exist but we don’t pay attention to them and that when we had to sit in peace and quietness, we paid attention to them. She said, “The book is my second publication after the book entitled “Prisoners of Silence” and the difference between the two books is great. In this first experience, a book in the state of testing myself while in the second book I began to identify things that distinguish me as a writer and I became more capable”.
The new books included the book entitled “The Golden Economy in the Time of Caliph Omar Bin Abdul Aziz, a Strategic Vision and Islamic Reading” by Yahya Salim Dalloul. He said that the book deals with the economic aspect and said, “In our current age, there are many good things but they are wasted and negatively affect people’s lives which are not free of poverty and inflation. I thought that it is important to adopt the experience of the Caliph Omar Bin Abdul Aziz who led the Umayyad State under conditions similar to what the Islamic countries are facing now as an example because he was able to apply Islamic Economic Jurisprudence in achieving social justice and equality among people and to make life within everyone’s reach. This led to an increase in the State’s production and the per capita share of national income.”
The last part of the session witnessed the launch of the novel entitled “When the Chrysanthemum Blooms” by the Algerian writer Sarah Rashidi, who spoke about her new book saying “Chrysanthemum flowers express a state of pessimism among some peoples such as Japan and China as they plant these plants in graves but the European peoples see that this plant reflects the meaning of fun, love of life, hope and optimism”. She added, “The life of the heroine of the story, Jazzy, is similar to that mixture of Asian and European culture which in its concept is a mixture of suffering, pain, obstacles and challenge. She has lived through conflicts and the story addresses a group of issues such as bullying specially in the school sector which is what the heroine was exposed to in the school and that made her hate school.”
She also said that the novel deals with racial discrimination in Arab societies between males and females where males are given priority in obtaining education due to poverty. She indicated also that the novel is inspired by the Algerian life after the end of occupation especially in the countryside where society suffers from many fears related to educating females as after she moved to the rural community after the death of her parents she found that the society prefers educating males over females.