7 years after the departure of Tharwat Okasha. History is equivalent to months Arab Culture Minister



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Dr. Tharwat Okasha Former Minister of Culture in Egypt - Stock Photo

Dr. Tharwat Okasha Former Minister of Culture in Egypt – Stock Photo

The 27th anniversary of the departure of Dr. Tharwat Okasha, one of the most prominent ministers of Arab culture, often described as "great construction," marks the seventh anniversary of his prominent role in Egyptian culture during the 1960s.

The merit of this title was not due to the ministerial seat, but as a result of a great ideological effort, which produced many encyclopedias that represent "a gift for every Arab intellectual" in relation to the arts and literature.

The return to Sir Okasha, who left on February 27, 2012, about 91 years ago, is a different sign this year, his portrait appeared about a month ago, the poster of the last edition of the Cairo International Book Fair in end of January. For the first time in 1969.

The same occasion renewed Okasha's birthday, prompting many commentators to assume his prominent role as one of the best ministers of culture known in the Arab world and extending his influence to the neighboring Arab countries.

Researcher Mohammed Sayed Rayan seized the occasion and published a book on the delays to be honored during the course of the Cairo Book Fair, which included many photos and documents.

Okasha was one of the most prominent faces of the Nasirite experience in Egypt since joining the Free Officers 'Organization and reached Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1949 as a junior officer of cavalry officers who played a decisive role in resolving the officers' of July 23, 1952.

Akasha's connection with Nasser was strengthened when he served as military attaché of Egypt in Switzerland and Paris during tense relations with the West during the 1956 war, and immediately thereafter Akasha went on to serve as Egypt's ambassador in Rome, receiving news of his appointment as Minister of Culture, replacing the late national intellectual Fathi Radwan. The 1958 government was named "Ministry of National Guidance."

Thanks to his liberal tendencies, which he never denied, when described in his memoirs as "selective, dictated by his liberal tendencies," Okasha succeeded in working in two ways: first, to establish a comprehensive institutional cultural structure of an educational and educational nature that he sought to disseminate the culture; And the second track was bound to make Egypt's cultural identity pluralistic, with openness to Western culture and its international and regional institutions.

During his reign, the Ministry of Culture was established as a royal institution that served as an example to the rest of the Arab countries that drew inspiration from the Egyptian experience after national independence, the Supreme Council of Culture (Supreme Council for the Care of the Arts and Literature of the time), the General Authority of the Book, the Academy of Arts. The National Library and the Archives, the Opera House, the National Circus, the Puppet Theater and the Mass Culture Service.

He also brought in international experts to collect the Egyptian heritage, as well as his role in launching a global call to save the monuments of Nubia after the establishment of the High Dam and the reconstruction of the Abu Simbel Temple in Aswan and the establishment of the project "Aleph Kuttab ".

Okasha helped complete his achievements by taking over the Ministry of Culture three times, the first from 1958 to 1962, the second from 1962 to 1966, and the third from 1966 to 1970.

In his memoirs, published in various editions of the mid-1980s entitled "My Memories in Politics and Culture," he published the number of roles played politically and culturally, revealing the mechanisms with which he worked and the names with which he cooperated to rehabilitate cultural institutions in Egypt. Yahya Hakki, Ahmed Abu Zeid, Fuad Zakaria and the late Saad Kamel, all of great stature, reveal a great awareness of the backward and paid to invest these minds.

In these memoirs, perhaps for the first time, the term "cultural policies" appeared in the literature of international organizations, mainly UNESCO.

His documents say that no policy of random ideas can emerge, and gives Okasha an earlier definition of UNESCO's definitions, which was a member of its executive council and linked to the comprehensive development plan, noting that "it is not an attempt by the state to create a government culture. " The flowering of cultural values ​​and aspirations of all kinds until the state empties its activities into other fields. "

He recognizes that the traditional question of what culture has been called is cultural politics or the general structure of cultural action. The ministry's mission is "to manage the paths of creation and creativity, not monopoly, while individuals can not perform. "

In many important experiments, the Akasha experience was aborted as a result of changes in the structure of the Nasserist regime, which led to a power struggle that contributed to the shock that followed the June 1967 reversal. A quantitative cultural policy was replaced by man described by the late writer Raja. "He has a voice and a light … a voice we heard in the conservatory he founded in Cairo, and the light we see with the effects of Egypt, which saved her from the loss with the construction of the High Dam."

Tharwat Okasha's biography is well known for his remarkable work, and his work has surpassed 80 books, most of them in the fields of art history, of which the most famous are "The ear heard and the ear seen." Wagner, Bernard Shaw and others, who link literature and the arts in their different ages, and are an art encyclopedia integrated into art and life.

He won many awards and won many local and international awards, including the Arts and Literature Medal in 1965, the Legion of Honor Medal and the Order of the French Legion of Honor in 1968, the UNESCO Silver Medal to save the temples of Abuseembel and the effects of Nubia. Saving the temples of Philae and the effects of Nubia in 1970.

The State Arts Prize of the Supreme Council of Culture in 1987 and the Mubarak Arts Prize of the Supreme Council of Culture in 2002, which is the largest Egyptian prize that changed its name to become the Nile Prize from 2011.

After years of his departure, his experience in cultural management is still worthy of reflection and an object of debate among intellectuals, while some describe him as "the best minister of culture in our history", others adopt a contrary view that sees man as the founding father of the idea of ​​"culture-oriented". Done.

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