The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) participated with a special pavilion in the Arabic Poetry Forum in Taif to observe the Year of Arabic Poetry 2023. The event was organized by the Saudi Ministry of Culture, in cooperation with the Literature, Publishing & Translation Commission, and Taif University, represented by the Arab Poetry Academy, in the presence of several senior officials, public figures, poets, researchers and critics from inside and outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

ICESCO was represented by Dr. Anas Hussam Saeed Al-Nuaimi, expert at the Center of Arabic for Non-Arabic Speakers, in the Forum that concluded on Thursday, 2 November 2023. In his address during the opening session, Dr. Al-Nuaimi emphasized ICESCO’s keen interest and commitment to be the first international organization to embrace poetry and poets, pointing to the Organization’s establishment of the Women Poets Forum, which includes more than 300 poets from all over the world, its launch of several Arabic poetry awards, as well as its publishing of a set of poetry collections.

At its dedicated pavilion, the representative of ICESCO introduced the poetry collections and divans issued by the Organization and delivered electronic copies of these collections to the guests and participants of the Forum, who expressed their gratitude and appreciation to ICESCO for its efforts in promoting Arabic poetry.
The Forum’s activities comprised intellectual sessions, cultural lectures, workshops, a book fair, and poetry recitals by senior poets, concluded with one by the Sudanese poet Rawda Al-Haj and the Saudi poet Muhammad Al Majed.