Miss Egypt Sedqi with Miss Universe France Mittenaere Farah Sedqi has been crowned the new Miss Egypt of 2017 after a fierce battle involving 10 contestants. Sedqi will thus represent Egypt in the 2018 World Championships on 26 November in Las Vegas, in the US. Iris Mittenaere, from France, Miss Universe 2016-2017 and a member of the jury committee of the Miss Egypt Universe, and who was on a short visit to Egypt to tour our historical and touristic sites and to attend a charity gala dinner held in her honour at the French Embassy, crowned Sedqi amid a festive atmosphere at a ceremony held on Saturday 28 October at Zamalek Marriott Hotel. The runner-up was Nermin Rashad while Samar Seif Al-Yazal finished third. This year's judging panel included the beauty expert Mohamed Al-Soghayar and fashion designer Hani Al-Behairi, the contest's official designer. Contestants competed with the latest soiree gowns Al-Behairi participated with at the Italian Fashion Festival in Naples and the French Fashion Week of Winter and Autumn 2018. The jury also included the photographer of celebrities Khaled Fadda, fashion expert Heba Serageddin and Hoda Abboud, former Miss Egypt and organiser of the competition. Abboud attributed the return of the Miss Egypt Universe to stronger competition, inviting Miss Universe France to participate as a member of the jury and organised for her tours in Cairo's tourist attractions, the Giza Pyramids and Alexandria to promote Egyptian tourism globally. The ceremony was attended by a large number of Egyptian society luminaries who contributed to the success of the ceremony, including jeweller Rafik Antoine who gave Sedqi a diamond collier and another to Mittenaere, decoration engineer Rabab Abdel-Ati, the lighting of Walid Hariri, and the sponsors of the event, On Life satellite channel. India photo competition The Embassy of India in Cairo, in collaboration with Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture, organised the event “Paryatan Parv 2017” at MACIC premises in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and the government of India. The Paryatan Parv (Tourism Fortnight) initiative aims at making India one of the world's dream tourism destinations. In the run-up to the event, quiz and photography competitions were organised on the social media platforms of the Embassy of India in Cairo from 10-20 October 2017, bringing into focus the best from each state in respect of their art forms, landscapes, monuments and other touristic attractions. The online quiz received an overwhelming response and three lucky winners were selected. The top three contributors included Egyptian tourists visiting India and Egyptian candidates who attended academic and professional courses in India. All the winners were awarded trophies and certificates by Ambassador of India Sanjay Bhattacharyya. The Viewfinders, a photo exhibition, was also held on the same day. The Viewfinders are a group of photographers and India connoisseurs from Alexandria with a membership of over 200, who visited India on two trips in 2015-16. The photographers captured the essence of daily life in India, the streets, the faces and features, the natural landscapes and monuments. The photographers were also felicitated on the occasion with certificates and MACIC medals by Bhattacharyya. Ambassador Bhattacharyya congratulated all the winners, saying “India is a beautiful country” and assuring all Egyptians they would receive a warm welcome in India. He said they would have the opportunity to experience the diversity of India's rich culture, tourist sites, history, wildlife and adventure. Sherif Sayed Amani Megahed, president of the Egyptian Association of Libraries, Information and Archives, honoured Al-Azhar student Sherif Sayed, winner of second place globally in the contest "Challenge of Arab Reading". The challenge is an Arab initiative to encourage more than one million students in the Arab world to read 50 million books each academic year. This huge project with a budget of $3 million was launched by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president of the United Arab Emirates, prime minister and ruler of Dubai. This year, more than 7.4 million students from 52 Arab and foreign countries participated, reading more than 200 million books. Everyone who contributed to Sayed's achievement from his family and library specialists to administrators in his school and his educational administration and Al-Azhar Foundation were also recognised. The association also honoured Professor Samah Mohamed Abdo, a library specialist at Hassan Abu Bakr School in Qaliubia, for winning first place on the level of Egypt's governorates as the best coordinator of "Challenge of Arabic Reading". Attending the awards ceremony was Somaya Seddik, director of the General Administration of School Libraries at the Ministry of Education, Sheikh Ali Khalil, representative of Al-Azhar, and Reda Hegazi, head of the General Education Sector in Egypt.
