Ali A. Attiga
Dr. Ali Attiga has spent more than 37 years working in different areas of economic and social development. He is the vice-Chairman of the World Energy Council and vice-president of the Oxford Energy Club. He was Secretary General of the Organization of the Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries OAPEC from 1973 to 1987. Until 1994 he was UNDP Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for the Bureau of Arab States in New York. 1996 he was selected Secretary General of the Arab Thought Forum in Amman/Jordan. Attiga was awarded high state decorations from Jordan, Tunisia, Venezuela and Liberia. He is listed in “WHO is WHO”.
Sahar Khalifa
The Palestinian author Sahar Khalifa (born 1941) is committed to feminism. She received her PhD in 1987 in American Literature and Gender Studies.
She lives alternatively in her home town Nablus and in the capital of Jordan, Amman, where she has founded a Centre for Women and Families Markaz Shu’un al-Mar’a wa l-Usra. She is known to the Western world as a novelist. Her six novels were translated into several European languages. She has also written two plays and several documentary scripts about Palestinian women and Palestinian society.
Nabeeha Loutfy
Nabeeha Loutfy, born in 1937 in Sidon/Lebanon, is a critic and documentary filmmaker. Between 1953- 1954 she was a student of the American University of Beirut. In 1953 she began to study Arabic Literature at the University of Cairo. 1960 she enrolled at the High Cinema Institute. In 1965 she was granted a scholarship to Paris. She worked for four years as an assistant director for feature films. She was one of the founders of the New Cinema Group and of the Society for Egyptian Woman in Film. She worked on organizing cinema clubs, the TV series “Women” is in the making. She has completed five films, two are in an editing stage. Filmography: A Prayer from Ancient Cairo, Tall El Zaatar, Saint Catherine Monastery, My Puppet, Hassan and the Bird, Children’s Play. Various films on Arabic women were also produced by her.
Farida an-Naqqash
The journalist and literary critic Farida an-Naqqash (born 1940) is regarded as one of the most esteemed personalities in Egypt. After her graduation in English Literature in Cairo (1962) she embarked on a career as a journalist. From 1982 to 1988 she was the editor responsible for the feature section of the daily newspaper al-Ahali. Since 1987 she has been editor-in-chief of the literary Magazine Adab wa Naqd. She is consulted as competent expert and part of highly valued juries in various foundations. Between 1979 and 1981 Farida an-Naqqash was held in political custody because of her leftist convictions.
Two of the four books she has written deal with this time in prison.
Hisham Sharabi
Hisham Sharabi is Professor Emeritus of European History and Professor of Arab Culture at Georgetown University, Washington, DC. He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Palestinian Studies. Sharabi received his BA from the American University in Beirut and his PhD in Cultural History from the University of Chicago. He is author of several books in English and Arabic: Governments and Politics of the Middle East, Nationalism and Revolution in the Arab World, Introduction to the Study of Arab Society and also of his autobiography “Images of the Past”. He serves as Chairman of the Board of the Jerusalem Fund for Education & Community Development and is Chairman of the Centre for Policy and Analysis on Palestine.
