Educator For The Arab World

CrossFireArabia
Culture
May 25, 2026

The renowned Palestinian writer and poet Khalil al-Sakakini and his wife in the village of Artas in 1930. Anyone between the ages of 60 and the early 50s knows this towering figure in education who authored the Arabic language curriculum for all grades in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula during their early years of independence. Students would reach the fifth grade able to read a newspaper fluently and without any errors or stammering, and they also possessed excellent writing skills.

Then, these curricula were replaced with others, and now we see many students graduating from university with stumbling over their reading, not to mention their spelling mistakes and poor handwriting.

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

Culture News

Iraqi Book Fair: 600 Publishers From 28 Countries

Heba
September 7, 2026

The 27th Baghdad International Book Fair has attracted more than 600 local, Arab and international publishing houses and agencies from 28 countries, marking the largest international participation in the event’s history, an organizer said Sunday. The participating countries include 17 Arab and 11 non-Arab states alongside research and scientific institutions, Abdul Wahab al-Radi, head of the fair’s organizing committee, told Anadolu. He said the fair features numerous cultural activities, while participating publishers are showcasing “tens of thousands of recent publications” across its halls. Al-Radi also highlighted the strong turnout of Iraqi visitors seeking to purchase newly published books. He said the attendance demonstrated Iraqi readers’ interest in “the latest international, Arab and Iraqi publications,” helping broaden their knowledge, learning and culture. The fair also carries “another message to the world: that Iraq is well and Baghdad is well,” he added. Al-Radi said the strong attendance reflected the importance of reading and culture to the Iraqi public. The fair opened on Sept. 2 and will run until Sept. 12. According to Al-Radi, the participation of 28 countries is the highest number recorded in the fair’s history.

Culture News