Farouk Geweda Criticizes Egyptian Intellectuals in a Poetic Evening at the BA
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Alexandria—
The BA Dialogue Forum hosted on Saturday, 18 August 2007, the renowned poet Farouk Geweda, Director of the Cultural Section at Al-Ahram Newspaper, who spoke about his poetic experience, the cultural life in Egypt, corruption and lost values in the society. The seminar was chaired by Dr. Fathy Abu Aiana, Professor at the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, and was attended by a group of poets and intellectuals.
Farouk Geweda criticized the status of intellectuals in Egypt today, and said that they were the main cause of the affliction to this country, and what they presented throughout the last fifty years lacks honor and conscience, and is a humiliation to the country.
The evening witnessed several interventions from the participants. Farouk Geweda answered a question on why his chosen title for his weekly article in Al-Ahram was "Free Margins", by replying that he will remove the word "margin" once he enjoys complete freedom in his discussions and objections. Geweda concluded the evening by reciting his poem ‘Aynak ‘Unwani.
Geweda is a contemporary Egyptian Poet born in 1946 with an honest and distinguished method of writing. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Press Department in 1968. He began his career by working in the Economic Section of Al-Ahram. He also worked as an Editorial Secretary at Al-Ahram, where he is currently the Director of the Cultural Section in Al-Ahram. Some of his poems and plays have been translated into many languages. Geweda has written 20 books, 13 of which are poetic anthologies. He also wrote 3 poetic plays, which were a great success in several theatrical festivals.