Baghdad hosts International Book Fair

Baghdad will host the International Book Fair from March 22 to 31, with the participation of 14 Arab and foreign countries and more than three thousand local and Arab publishing houses, in which tens of thousands of books and publications of various scientific, historical and cultural backgrounds have been exhibited in several languages. 

The Ministry of Culture, through the Department of Public Cultural Relations, participated actively in such a cultural event. The "Mobile Library" participated in the exhibition with its varied and valuable books and under the direction and supervision of the Director General of the Department, Falah Shaker Hassan Shaker.

The exhibition includes a variety of cultural activities including cultural lectures and intellectual seminars, recent literary and intellectual book signing sessions, and a drawing workshop for children, presented by the Department of Public Cultural Relations and other publishing houses, creating an atmosphere of constructive intellectual dialogues that will spread The spirit of intellectual convergence and encourage people to become aware of the acquisition of books and reading.

Samir Ibrahim Bshbishi, the owner of Dar al-Isra for printing and publishing in Cairo, one of the major Egyptian publishing houses which participating distinctly in Baghdad exhibition, said in special statements for Arabs Today, that Egypt has a long tradition in participating in book fairs in Iraq, represented by all the cultural and educational aspects.

Regarding the size of the Egyptian participation in the exhibition, Beshbishi stressed that it is more than 300 publishing houses came to Iraq to prsesnt their greatest books.

Beshbishi added that this participation is his fifth at the Baghdad Book Fair, and he believes that the increasing turnout by the public this year is different from previous years, because book represents the Arab nation.

The former vice president of the republic, Khudair al-Khuzaie, expressed his happiness with this pioneering project launched by the Department of Cultural Relations, hoping that Baghdad will return to its past as a cultural beacon. 

On the same level, the Secretary-General of the Shiite shrines Sheikh Sattar Al-Jizani praised the experience of the mobile library, considering it an ambitious project especially as it works very hard to spread cultural and cognitive awareness, hoping to support this project by all official institutions and others.

On the other hand, the Director General of the Department of Research and Studies in the Office of the Sunni Endowment, Dr. Yousef Najim al-Obeidi, expressed his admiration for the various publications in the exhibition, which shed light on the history of Baghdad in all its aspects and the periods it has experienced both politically and economically and socially.