Arab World Institute honors poet Al-Juraifani

The Arab World Institute in Paris today is honoring Saudi poet Ibrahim Al-Juraifani as part of a ceremony the institute is holding to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Saudi Ambassador to France Mohammed bin Ismail Al Al-Sheikh and the Saudi delegate to the UNESCO Ziyad Al-Durais were expected to attend the ceremony.
President of United Writers of Tunisia Muhammad Badawi, Lebanese journalist Gorge Raji and Egyptian writer Osama Al-Khaleel are also expected to attend.
Participants will present critical working papers on Al-Juraifani’s works during the ceremony, which will also include several cultural activities, critical discussions, recitation of poems, short music shows and an art exhibition of a number of artists who produced more than 20 paintings based on Al-Juraifani’s poems. They are Nawal Al-Ajmi from Kuwait, Ukadi Matar from Bahrain and Pascal Masoud and Ahlam Abbas from Lebanon.
Al-Juraifani says the message he wants to deliver to French society through his work is the importance of dialogue between different religions and cultures.
Through his themes, he highlights the issue of women's rights in the Arab world, as well as different social and humanitarian issues aiming to clarify the vague image French intellectuals have about the Arab World.
In the collection of his poems, there are several texts that were translated into English and French.
“The translated texts are for French university students and eastern literature researchers who have been invited to the occasion,” he said.
Al-Juraifani said a society couldn’t be judged by individual acts coming from individuals or barely known newspapers that are looking for fame through attacking religious sanctities.
Al-Juraifani was born in 1958 in the city of Onaiza. He worked with Saudi television from 1975 to 1980 and has produced several collections of poems.
As part of the celebration the institute is also holding an exhibition on Islamic art and Arabian civilizations and their pre-Islamic Arabic, Kurdish and Syrian dialects. The exhibition will also showcase 12th-century copies of the Qur’an, Torah and Injil (the original gospel).
Countries funding the establishment of the institution are Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain, the UAE, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine, Morocco, Mauritania, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.