By Eliana Maakaroun. Monday, June 28, 2010
BEIRUT: A first-ever festival to promote the Arabic language was held this weekend in Beirut, focusing on art, music and theater to encourage a national and regional effort to get young people enthusiastic about the language.
Hamra Street was filled with children running around, with Arabic letters attached to their shirts, marking the opening of the 2 kilometer “letter marathon.” The race was of symbolic value as it pointed out that language isn’t a distant goal; with only a bit of effort, anyone can reach it.
Suzanne Talhouk, president of Feil Amer (Imperative), the host organization, explains, “people think that Arabic is outdated, that it is too old. What we’re doing is putting the language in the right concept, we are relating it to contemporary art, so that people can relate to it as well.”
The Feil Amer initiative was launched in January 2010, and its main purpose is to build a cultural landscape and social background to help the development of language awareness, since the latter is directly related to national identity.
The organization stresses the UN’s “right of people to preserve their mother tongue,” as its members consider this to be a primary human right.
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