Aswan — Egypt’s Minister of Social Solidarity Nevine el-Qabbag was present yesterday at the opening of the 8th Aswan International Women’s Film Festival.
The festival, which features 76 films from all over the world, will close on 25 April.
The event will also feature several documentaries from the Awareness for Community Development programme and the Diarna exhibition, showcasing heritage products and crafts.
Art unites everyone regardless of gender, language, or colour, as it contributes to building humans regardless of nationality, the minister said, highlighting the role of cinema in shaping ideas and character.
Cinema is not only for entertainment but also a medium for social and cultural creativity, depicting social issues and presenting them in a natural and interactive process, the minister added.
Art addresses issues such as poverty, social inequality, agriculture and its social structures, intellectuals, social reform, economy, the interests of workers and farmers, politics, citizen-state relations and family matters, in addition to women’s issues, drugs, illness, and crime, el-Qabbag said.
The Aswan International Women’s Film Festival is not only an important event to celebrate and honour creative women in all fields of cinema, but also a genuine platform for dialogue on various national, regional, and global women’s issues, el-Qabbag added.
Throughout history, women have been key players in the cinema industry, using it as a platform to advocate for women’s issues, she said.
This year’s festival showcases films depicting one of the noblest battles waged by Palestinian women to defend their lives, children, families, land, and homeland.
She also extended her greetings to Sudanese women who have shown great resilience during the Sudanese war, as well as to Tunisian cinema, the festival’s guest of honour, which has always been one of the most important cinemas in the Arab world.
El-Qabbag said her ministry supports the Aswan International Women’s Film Festival in its belief in several developmental principles aimed at building and developing humanity comprehensively.
This includes forming positive awareness in individuals and communities to drive developmentprocess and address poverty in its various dimensions by criticizing negative ideas underlying many harmful social practices.
In this context, the Ministry of Social Solidarity established the Awareness for Community Development programme, which serves as the cognitive and cultural axis for social protection programmes.
El-Qabbag pointed out that the Ministry of Social Solidarity has been participating in the Aswan International Women’s Film Festival since 2022 in various important and influential events. Additionally, the ministry supports the attendance of girls and women working in the social and developmental field at the festival, organizing seminars and dialogues between filmmakers, development workers, and the public on the role of cinema in raising awareness about women’s issues and development.
The Minister also attended a function to review programmes adopted by War (Awareness) financed by the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme.
She was briefed on developments in a number of programmes in Aswan villages, including female genitale mutilation, violence against women, early marriage, and importance of girls’ education.
