The Ousha Al-Suwaidi Award Is an Exceptional Achievement for The Poet’s Status and the Richness of Her Experience 

Al-Ka’abi: 

The Ousha Al-Suwaidi Award Is an Exceptional Achievement for The Poet’s Status and the Richness of Her Experience 

Professor of Criticism and Narratives at the University of Bahrain (UoB), Dr. Diya Abdullah Al-Ka’abi, said that winning first place for literary studies in the Ousha bint Khalifa Al-Suwaidi Prize “The Girl of the Arabs ” in its first session is an exceptional cultural achievement that she is highly proud of, given the great cultural status represented by the Emirati poet Ousha bint Khalifa Al-Suwaidi. 

According to Dr. Al-Ka’abi, the poet Ousha recited poetry at an early literary stage in the history of Arab women’s writing, which is the thirties of the last century, noting that the poet was distinguished by a different linguistic eloquence, as she drank from the springs of ancient Arabic literature, as the Omani writer Abdullah Al-Taee described her as being in the status of the two poets Ibn La’aboon and Abdullah Al-Faraj, who match the status of Al-Mutanabbi and Imru’ Al-Qais in eloquent poetry. 

The cultural award was launched on the occasion of the centenary of the Emirati poet Ousha bint Khalifa Al Suwaidi (1920-2018), who is one of the most prominent Gulf female poetic voices in the field of Nabati poetry. 

Dr. Al-Kaabi Presented a critical study entitled “The Eloquence of Contrariety, Women’s Discourse in The Gulf Nabati Poetry, the Poetry of Ousha bint Khalifa Al-Suwaidi as a Model”, in the First Literary Symposium on The Poetry of Ousha bint Khalifa Al-Suwaidi. 

The head of the Arabic Language Department at the University’s College of Arts won the award, which dozens of participants competed for, and by the decision of the jury after being invited to participate in the award by the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, due to her cultural and monetary achievements. 

Dr. Al Ka’abi stated that “The poet Ousha Al-Suwaidi represents a foundational poetic icon in the history of the United Arab Emirates, the Arab Gulf region and the Arabian Peninsula, especially as she worked on the poetry of confession in her poems and contended with the great poets of the Arab Gulf with her poetic boldness and the strength of her speech.” 

It is worth mentioning that Al-Suwaidi competed with the greatest poets and rulers of sheikhs, led by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who called the poet “The Girl of the Arabs.” Also, the poet left a huge poetry collection of nearly a thousand pages, which was pledged to be collected and documented by the Emirati heritage researcher Hamad Bushehab and then Prof. Dr. Rafia’a Obaid Ghabash. 

It is also worth noting that the Ousha bint Khalifa Al-Suwaidi Award (The Girl of the Arabs) was launched under the slogan “With Verses Like a Polished Rock.”, as the award is an inspiring cultural gesture, and a celebration of the centenary of the ” Girl of the Arabs “, in the context of preserving the legacy of the poet Ousha Al-Suwaidi, which is full of history, authentic local spirit, and rich vocabulary, and who is an important linguistic reference for the people of the region in general, and the people of the UAE in particular. Also, the award comes in honor of her status and her eternal poetic talent.