Body and soul In the run up to the first International Yoga Day on 21 June 2015 – approved by 177 countries at the 193 UNGA on 11 December last year – the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture in Cairo is busier than ever. Giving yoga classes since 1992, through the Indian Embassy's Facebook page the centre has organised a photo competition entitled “Yoga in Egypt”, open to Egyptian nationals and non-Egyptian residents. (Photos should be submitted to macic@ indembcairo.com before 10 June.) Three winners will be announced on the day. Four sessions on Common Yoga Protocol will also be held on 4, 6, 11 and 13 June. The Egyptian Lebanese Publishing House launched Egyptologist Zahi Hawass' new book, Forty Years of Excavations, in a major celebration. The book details, among other stepping stones in Hawass' career, the discovery of the Valley of the Golden Mummies in Kharga Oasis. Present were politician Mustafa Al-Fiki, TV anchor Moufid Fawzi, Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty, former Al-Ahram Editor in Chief Osama Saraya, former Egyptian Ambassador to the US Abdel-Raouf Al-Ridi, Egyptologist Ali Radwan and former minister of electricity Hassan Younis. Spanish Queen Sofía attended the Cairo Opera House celebration of the 40th anniversary of Umm Kulthoum in Madrid. Present at the performance of the Arab Music Ensemble, conducted by Mustafa Helmi, was the Egyptian Ambassador to Spain Ayman Abdel-Samie. Cairo Opera House Director Ines Abdel-Dayem has since expressed her contentment, regarding the queen's presence as “a certificate of appreciation”. The UNESCO International Festival of Cultural Diversity tour of the Arab Music Ensemble started at the Louvre and the Montpelier theatre and ended in Córdoba. The AUC Bookstore three-day sale (29-31 May) presents thousands of expensive books at LE 5-50 at the Tahrir Campus, 10am-6pm (except Friday 29 May: 1pm-6 pm). The Gezira Sporting Club Social Salon hosted a seminar on Khedive Ismail which Nesmahar Sayed attended. The event was organised by the Egyptian Association for Environment and Community Service (EAECS), presided over by Sohaila Al-Sawi, and featured historian Amr Talaat, himself the grandson of Chief of the Royal Cabinet under King Farouk, Abdel-Wahab Talaat Pasha. Talaat was eager to present a positive and accurate image of the founder of modern Egypt. Present were the former editor of Nisf Al-Duniya magazine Afkar Al-Kharadli, veteran Al-Akhbar journalist Maha Abdel-Fattah, former chief of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency Salah Hafez and development scholar Seheir Kansouh. In a gigantic celebration packed with celebrities, poet Hanan Nasr crowned the Tunisian Yasmine Dakoumi as Miss Arab World 2015 contest. Dakoumi was the first runner-up, and took the title instead of the Moroccan Salma Zakmout who gave it up in order to marry (which disqualified her). Dakoumi will now begin travelling around the Arab countries for charity work. The celebration featured a fashion show and a performance by singer Sherif Hamdi. The director of the Korean Cultural Centre in Cairo Park Jae Yang, together with the Head of the Fine Arts Sector Hamdi Abul-Maati, inaugurated the Tale of Two Cities exhibition at Saad Zaghloul Cultural Centre (see Listings P.22). Celebrating 20 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the exhibition includes 50 images from the Cairo-Seoul City Exchange project featuring Ji Woo Nam in Cairo and Eman Helal in Seoul. Boasting an introduction by screenwriter Wahid Hamed, Al-Masry Al-Youm's desk editor Sherif Aref's book, The Muslim Brotherhood in the Political Police Files, was published by the General Organisation of Cultural Palaces this week. Moroccan singer Jannat visited the Children's Cancer Hospital 57357 to launch her charity advertising campaign. Jannat spent the day at the hospital with the children, learning about the cycle of the treatments.
