An American-Iraqi poet and a Swedish actress of Syrian-Iraqi origin have been awarded the 18th Unesco-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture.
Dunya Mikhail and Helen Al Janabi will be given their awards during a ceremony at the Unesco headquarters in Paris on May 30.
A panel of experts selected the two women for their commitment to the promotion of Arab culture and praised their work for communicating “complex issues while keeping them accessible for a large audience.”
Dunya Mikhail was born in Baghdad and worked as a translator and journalist before emigrating to the US in 1996.
Organisers said she has created “powerful writing, translation and poetry” which speaks to the “horrors and hardships of war, migration and loss of country”. Her first book published in English, The War Works Hard, was selected as one of the 25 Best Books of 2005 by the New York Public Library.
Helen Al Janabi, a Swedish actress of Syrian-Iraqi origin, has enjoyed a successful career in theatre, film and television. Unesco said her work examines themes of displacement, forced exile and language.
In 2015, she founded Arabiska Teatern, Europe's first and only professional Arabic-speaking theatre group. The theatre has produced five plays in Arabic that have been performed more than 400 times in Sweden.
The Unesco-Sharjah prize, now in its 14th year, annually recognises two individuals or groups that have made outstanding contributions to Arab art and culture.
The UAE-backed initiative is part of Unesco's Social and Human Sciences Programme, and the prize carries a monetary value of $60,000, which is equally divided between the two laureates.
