From Umm Kulthum to Dalida .. Icons of the Arab world embellish the “City of Light”

A unique event in the French capital, Paris, which receives a museum exhibition of the collections of the most important icons of Arab art, in reference to the role of Cairo in the revival of the feminist movement in the nineteenth century through many portals, to starting with art, and then ending with the intellectual and literary movement.

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Celebrating the magic of the stars who shaped the golden age of Arab music and cinema in the 19th century, the Institut du monde arabe, on the Seine in the French capital, will attend, from May 19 to September 26, a museum exhibition of collections of exceptional icons that have influenced the Arab world through their art, starting with the stars of the song Kawkab The East, Umm Kulthum, the neighbor of the moon, the bird of Beirut, Fairuz, the guitar from the East, the princess of Oud Asmahan, Warda Al-Jazaery, then with the most prominent faces of Arab cinema.

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The walls of the temporary museum, which host a museum exhibition of the collections of artistic icons that have filled the streets of our Arab world, also house several intellectual and educational messages taken into account by the Institute of the Arab World, created more ago. of four decades, with the agreement of 18 Arab countries, as a bridge to make the French discover our Arab culture.

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Inside the Institut du Monde, which receives nearly half a million visitors a year, your gaze will be drawn to everything relating to the Arab world in the 19th century. This exceptional course is an artistic panorama, intellectual and cultural.

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The walls of the Institute of Arab Civilization receive the collections of guitars from the East, which revolutionized our Arab world through their art, and are still present in the East and the West despite their absence. Fairoza Beirut, while there is a dress in which Warda Al Jazairia performed it brilliantly.

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The show is not limited to the art collections either, but rather to a course of 4 chapters, the first chapter begins with a museum exhibition of the collections of icons of 19th century artists, then its second chapter moves towards cultural performances aimed at discovering the life and history of the pioneers and institutions of the feminist movement in Cairo since 1920, and the third Its chapters are a review of the pioneers of intellectual and literary life in the nineteenth century, up to the fourth chapter, which serves as virtual concerts with golden voices that delighted the world in the decades between 1940 and 1970, as well as for the stars of the golden age of Arab cinema.

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The Arab World Institute also focuses on Cairo’s role in pushing the Arab world to reach the peak of its intellectual renaissance, as Egypt was an active cultural center that attracted female artists from all over the Arab world. which led to an artistic renaissance and the emergence of women in the Arab art scene, which was dominated by men before Cairo, pushes to change this situation in the twenties of the last century, which led to an increase the number of claims for freedom and rekindled the role of women in art and intellectual circles.

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The Arab World Institute reviews the pioneers of the Egyptian and Arab feminist movement, Hoda Shaarawy and Siza Nabarawy, and the Egyptian Feminist Union, created in Cairo to defend women’s rights, as it was founded in 1923 , highlighting the feminist struggle aimed at strengthening the presence of women in the intellectual and cultural arena of Arab societies.

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In addition to the role of Cairo in strengthening the presence of women in Arab intellectual life through the creation of the magazine “Egyptian Woman” and a number of satirical and entertainment newspapers such as “Rose El-Youssef” (1925 ), named after its owner, actress Rose, who played an active role in the press in Egypt between the two world wars.

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In addition to the literary salons established in Cairo at this time, which were a platform for the liberation of women.

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The Arab Institute highlights several pioneers of the literary movement that emerged in the Arab world in the 19th century, such as writer and journalist Mai Ziada, who defended girls’ right to education.

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It also pays tribute to the first stars who fell from memory, including artist Munira Al-Mahdiyya, Badia Masbani, Aziza Amir and others.

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The Arab World Institute celebrates Arab song stars from different social backgrounds, origins and beliefs, but who gained great Arab and international popularity from the early 1940s until the late 1960s thanks to their golden voices.

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As they move between the exhibition halls, visitors enjoy the most beautiful and famous songs sung by these stars, and we still sing them today in all Arab countries.

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Among the collections presented by the Institute of the Arab World are the Algerian, French and diplomatic passports of Warda, as well as video clips of her distinguished songs, such as a song that she sang after the liberation of Algeria and in part given to national liberation.

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And dresses in which the Lebanese star Sabah appeared in 100 films, and she sang more than 3000 songs.

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It also features clips from concert videos from Eastern Planet Umm Kulthum, as well as Lebanese singer Fairouz, who became famous through her songs for Palestine around the world.

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Hollywood by the Nile

The celebration of the “Arab World Institute” in Cairo as the Arab center of the feminist movement did not come out of nowhere, as Egypt was the fourth largest film producer in the world in the late 1930s at the beginning of the seventies, and Egyptian cinema witnessed its “golden age”, since it produced between 50 and 60 films per year.

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Lyrical, comic and dramatic films were the cornerstone of the rise and success of the Egyptian film industry, which helped found Talaat Harb Pasha’s “Studio Misr” in 1935.