Sharjah, May 5 / ONA / The Cultural and Media Office of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, issued a digital book titled “Hadith Al-Iz’lah" (Isolation Talk). It is a collective book in which a number of female writers from the Arabian Gulf countries participated with a writing about the non-voluntary isolation, imposed by the health conditions sweeping the world. The number of female participants reached 23 female writers, poets, novelists and specialists in literary criticism within the Gulf Cooperation Council states. The book varied between literary texts, articles, and poetry.

Salha Ghabish, head of the Council's cultural and media office, said, “this is the second experience in our cultural office to write a collective book. The first book was entitled “Qa’imah” (List) published nearly seven years ago in which seven Emirati writers took part. This experience comes different as it is more extensive in terms of geography and number of contributors.”

For the composition of this book, due to the implementation of the precautionary decisions, it has been communicated online with female writers from the Gulf countries to give their feelings, thoughts and reflections on the compulsory isolation, given that most writers love their optional isolation in order to produce literary texts. The women writers responded wonderfully to the participation. Two female writers from each Gulf country were hosted to participate with their Emirati colleagues in producing this book, which may be one of the books that chronicles this critical stage of our life in the context of literary texts.

This book was co-written by Intisar Al-Bina, Dhiaa Al-Kaabi from the United Arab Emirates, Saida bint Khater Al-Farsi, and Aziza Al-Tai from Oman, Nabila Al-Zubari from the Kingdom of Bahrain, Fatima Ashour and Nawal Al-Jabr from Saudi Arabia, Souad Al-Anzi and the poet and journalist Saadia Al-Mufreh from Kuwait.

Other female writers from the United Arab Emirates who also participated in this book were Mariam Al-Hashemi, Zainab Al-Yasi, Sheikha Al-Jabri, Salha Ghabish, Fathia Al-Nimr, Asmaa Al-Zarouni, Sheikha Al Mutairi, Aisha Al-Ajil, Salha Obaid Hasan, Nadia Al Najjar, Sarah Al-Nawaf, Iman Al-Youssef, Aisha Abdullah, and Amna Abi.

Fine arts had a presence in the pages of the book through paintings that contributed to drawing joy and hope in the vicinity of isolation. The paintings were created by Emirati artists including Najat Hassan Makki, Mona Al-Khaja, Fatima Al-Hammadi, Huda Al-Thahoori, Asmahan Al-Attar and Huriya Al-Zarouni.