Farouk Hosny

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Farouk Hosny

Farouk Hosny (Arabic:فاروق حسنى) (or Hosni), (born 1938 in Alexandria, Egypt) is an Egyptian abstract painter who was appointed in 1987 to the position of Minister of Culture, which he currently still holds.

1 Early life
2 Achievements as Minister of Culture in Egypt
3 Controversy
4 Sources and notes
5 Further reading

[edit] Early life

Hosni was born and grew up in Alexandria, Egypt. He graduated from Alexandria University's School of Fine Arts. He directed Al-Anfoushi Cultural Palace for six years.^[1]

"When Hosni came to the ministry in 1987, it was straight from Rome, where he was director of the Egyptian Academy of Arts. Before that, he had spent eight years as cultural attaché in Paris. An abstract painter, he held exhibitions in New York, Vienna and Tokyo as well as most of the Arab world, winning, among other awards, the Japanese Soka Gakai International University culture and peace prize."^[1]

[edit] Achievements as Minister of Culture in Egypt

He introduced the Horizon One Gallery, attached to the Mahmoud Khalil Museum, the Palace of Arts, on the Opera House Grounds, and the Gezira Arts Centre, behind the Ceramics Museum in Zamalek. Hosni established the Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre. The Opera House-based Modern Dance Troupe and School, under the tutelage of Walid Aouni, the Cairo History Rehabilitation Project, the Nubia Museum in Aswan and the Alexandria National Museum (under construction are the Grand Museum of Egypt, overlooking the Giza Plateau, and the National Museum of Civilisation in Fustat), and the Cultural Development Fund were achieved under his leadership.^[1]

[edit] Controversy

In an interview published in November 2006, Farouk Hosni sparked controversy among many religious Muslims, particularly the clergy, after stating publicly that the traditional Muslim veil for women, the hijab, "is a step backward for Egyptian women". Hosny said, "women with their beautiful hair are like flowers and should not be covered up" and "religion today is linked only to appearances, while every woman's veil should be inside her, not outside." The dominance of the conservative party in Egypt also leads to a very conservative religious mindset. Farouk Hosni's views that men should be veiled if girls are and that men's hair is no more or less sinful than women's hair were shocking. Also he publicly denounced the "Moufti," people who are specially educated in the Koran and trained to give their views of Islam, and he said that they are worthless and are giving faulty image to the true Islam. His views were controversial, but was shared by a minority of Muslims who believe that hijab/veil is a step backward for Egyptian women and Egyptian culture.

Hosni remains in his job and said that he didn't call for stripping women of their veil, but that the veil style coming from the Arabian Peninsula (the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf) is not appropriate for Egyptian women.