ALECSO honours the Katara Cultural Village Foundation, classifying it as the “City of the Arab Novel”

The Katara Cultural Village Foundation was recognised as the “City of the Arab Novel” by the Arab Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALECSO) during a ceremony on Friday night in the capital of Tunisia.

This was held in the presence of a number of their excellencies, the ambassadors and representatives of diplomatic missions in Tunisia, as well as a group of intellectuals and media professionals. Prof. Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of Katara; H E Professor Dr. Mohamed Ould Omar, Director-General of the Arab Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALECSO); and H E Fahd bin Khalifa Al Attiyah, Deputy Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Republic of Tunisia.

On this occasion, a documentary on Katara Cultural Village was screened for the attendees.

Prof. Dr. Al Sulaiti was presented with the ALECSO shield and the certificate designating Katara as a city of Arab novel.

The designation of Katara as a city dedicated to the Arab novel was granted by the Permanent Committee for Arab Culture. This occurred in the context of World Novel Week, which is observed annually from October 13 to October 20. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) approved this schedule based on a request from Unesco. The Arab Ministers of Culture supported it when it was filed in 2016 by the Katara Cultural Village Foundation.

Prof. Dr. Al Sulaiti emphasised that Katara will always welcome Arab novelists and that the Katara Prize for Arabic Novel offers a free, fair, and transparent competition each year, through which 14 winners are chosen in six categories: published novels, unpublished books, boys' novels, studies of novel criticism, historical novels, and Qatari novels.