QPC hosts cultural forum on Sheikh Hamad Award

The Qatar Press Centre (QPC) hosted Wednesday a forum on Qatar’s efforts in establishing cultural exchange and spreading peace with the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding (SHATIU) as a model.The forum was moderated by Dr Hanan Fayyad, professor at Qatar University and spokesperson and media adviser for the award.The participants were Jaime Sanchez Ratia, Nadia al-Ashiri, Basam al-Bazzaz, Abdul Hayy Abro and Hassan al-Yazighi – each a winner in a different category of the award.QPC chairman Saad bin Mohamad al-Rumaihi and chief executive Sadiq Mohamed al-Amari were present on the occasion.The award winners stressed the importance of the award in encouraging translators around the world to improve their work and exert more efforts to promote cultural exchange overcoming language barriers.All the winners said that this is their first time in Qatar, and expressed thanks for the warm welcome, generous hospitality and the openness, and voiced admiration with the country’s development.Ratia from Spain said that he has worked in various Arab countries, including Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Tunisia, besides being a translator at the United Nations.He stressed that translation helps bridge cultural gaps between peoples and enables them to better understand each other.Ratia also expressed his appreciation for the efforts exerted by Qatar in promoting this field.Iraqi professor al-Bazzaz, who had taught in universities in Baghdad, Beirut and Damascus, said that the Sheikh Hamad Award has established itself as a prestigious award in the field, known for being perfectly transparent, fair and unbiased.He considered it as a precious award given to true achievers in the field.Moroccan professor al-Yazighi said that he is very happy to win the prize this year, having worked hard for the past five years to clock achievements in the field.He said that the Sheikh Hamad Award is a major incentive for translators to further exercise their creativity.Fellow Moroccan professor al-Ashiri highly appreciated Qatar's efforts to promote cultural exchange and understanding, saying that the award is an example for this.Abro, a professor and translator from Pakistan, praised the efforts of Qatar's Ministry of Endowment (Awqaf) and Islamic Affairs for spreading intrinsic knowledge about Islamic jurisprudence and other related topics, which have been an incentive for him to issue similar magazines in his local language.Dr Fayyad said that the forum was aimed at introducing the winning translator’s human experience and get closer to their ideas on various related issues.