GRANDE DAME OF KUWAITI CULTURE THE POETESS WHO TRANSCENDED THE BARRIERS OF TRIBE
Princess of Modern Arabic Poetry
Dr Suad campaigned heavily for women’s political rights in her country, the State of Kuwait where its native women were granted the right to vote and participate in politics via both suffrage and candidacy in 2005.
She was selected by Boutros Ghali, the sixth Secretary General of the UN to represent the United Nations at the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995) in Beijing, China as part of an all-female delegation consisting of five honorary guests including the first ladies of the USA, France and Nigeria as well as the President of Iceland at that time.
As a humanist
As a human rights activist, she has been associated with numerous social organizations and Dr Suad as a founding member of the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR), still holds membership number one since 1983. Her contributions in this regard are greatly valued. Some of her political opinions and humanistic views were also published in book form such as Human Rights in the Contemporary World (1997), Human Rights Between Theory and Implementation (1997), What Do You Know About Human Rights? (1997) and Papers on the International Policy (2006).
Her publishing house, Dar Suad Al-Sabah published 8 distinguished publications to commemorate the literary and scientific achievements as an initiative as well as a kind of honor for those eight celebrated figures who are regarded as the symbols of Arabic culture in their time. She has contributed as a supervisor and co-author in these following commemorative books: Abdulaziz Hussain: The Dream of Arabic Enlightenment (1995), Ibraheem AlOraiyedh: The Radiance of Cultural Bahrain (1996), Nizar Qabbani: A Poet For All Generations (1998), Dr Tharwat Okashah: The Rifle and the Feather (2000), Abdullah AlFaisal: Between the Feelings of Deprivation and Alienation of Soul (2001), Abdulkareem Ghallab: A Light Rises from Morocco (2003), Ghassan Tuwaini (2007) and Dr Saleh Al-Ojairi: The Dean of Astronomy (2013).
Critical studies
Many critical studies have been written on the poetic works of Dr Suad Al-Sabah in different languages and some were published in books including Suad Al-Sabah: The Poetry and the Poetess by Fadhel Khalaf (1992), Suad Al-Sabah in Fatafeet Imraah: The Sentimental Duality and the Multiplicity of Dimensions by Dr Azzah Agha Malak (1992 in French). In the Beginning was the Female: The Instinct of Life and the Experience of Contact with Suad Al-Sabah by Dr Asmahan Badeer AlSaidawi (1992 in French ), A Traveler’s Reading in Suad Al-Sabah’s Poetry by Dr Muhammad Al-Tonji (1993), The Poetic Experience for Suad Al-Sabah by Piere Risha (1993 in French), Suad Al-Sabah: The Poetess of Pain by Dr Azzah Agha Malak (1992 in French ), The Play on taut Strings by Dr Nabeel Ragheb (1993), Critical Readings in the Poetry of Suad Al-Sabah by Saeed Farahat and Belal Khair (1994), Suad Al-Sabah: The Poetess of Intimate Belonging by Fadehl Al-Ameen (1994), The Language of Tangency by Mahmood Haider (1994), Suad Al-Sabah: A Journey in her Incomplete Works by Abdulateef AlArnaoudh (1995), Suad Al-Sabah: A New Study by Burhan Bukhari (1999), In the Shadows of Creativity by Najwa Hasan (1999), The Text and the Absent Text by Dr Abdulmalek Murtaadh (2000), Suad Al-Sabah: A Wintery Poetess by Dr Ismael Ismael Murrowah (2000), A Minart on the Gulf by Najm Muhammad Youssef (2001), The Anthology of Suad Al-Sabah’s verse by Dr Muhammad Anani, The Linguistic and Artistic Structure in the Poetry of Suad Al-Sabah by Dr Tayseer Rajab Al-Nassoor (2002), Destruction and Construction by Dr Maha Mirdem Baik (2002), The Poem is a Female and the Female is a Poem by Dr Fawzi Issa (2003), Issues and Implements: A Study in the Poetry of Suad Al-Sabah by Dr Mukhtar Abu Ghali (2003), The Rose of the Sea and the Freedom of Feminine Imagination by Dr Salah Fadhel (2003), Studies of Love Poems by Dr Natheer Al-Adhamah (2004 in English), A Woman from the Beautiful Time by Ali Al-Masoudi (2004), The Image of Arab Reality in the Poetry of Suad Al-Sabah by Dr Sameer Sarhan (2004), The Woman Among the Commas of Words by Dr Fatimah Al-Jmeiy Al-Hababi (2005), The Poetry of Suad Al-Sabah: A Study in the Poetic Inclusions by Rabehah Mahmood Al-Bahar (Master’s thesis in 2007), The Planning of Text: A Theurgical Observation in the Poetry of Suad Al-Sabah by Dr Hamad AlDookhi (2013), Questions of the Sun by Ali Al-Masoudi (2014), A Rebellion of a Gulf Woman by Dr Abdullah Al-Muhanna (2015) and Suad Al-Sabah: The Memory of Time which Crowned with the Poem by Ethab Al-Rekabi (2015).
Al-Sabah has 33 books to her credit which include 25 of her own writings while the rest were ones she edited or co-authored, and she also experimented with different genres such as essays, history, biography as well as various socio-economic studies.
Dr Suad has delivered many lectures at several universities worldwide such as the University of Oxford, University of Surrey, University of Aden, Cairo University and Kuwait University. She is fluent in Arabic, English and French.
Honors and recognitions
Apart from many honors and public felicitations, Dr Suad Al-Sabah has been conferred with the highest award in Kuwaiti literature, the State Appreciative Award for her contribution to Kuwaiti literature in 2002. She received the Prize of Poetic Creativity from the Foundation of Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain in 2006, and she was the recipient of the South Korean Manhae Prize for literature in 2012 for her contributions to the world of literature. Dr Suad has also won Arab Woman Award in 2016 for her literary and cultural contributions. She has been awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of her cultural and educational contributions in 2007. She was also awarded a fellowship from St Catherine’s College at the University of Oxford. Dr Suad also received the Tunisian Cultural Excellence Order of Merit and was honored with the decoration of Cultural Merit as well as the Female Creative Plaque from the Tunisian government. She received the Plaque of Honor from the Arab institute in Paris, France and also received another Plaque of Honor from Taawon foundation in Palestine. She was also honored by Kuwait University on the occasion of the Kuwaiti literature day.
Dr Suad was the first Arab (non-Egyptian) woman who was awarded a commemorative plaque from Cairo University on the occasion of the world education day. She was also honored by the Arab League which named her the distinguished Arab woman in appreciation for her contributions in literature and culture.
She is an honorary member of the Board of Trustees of the Arabic Cultural Council in Lebanon and a honorary member of the American University of Beirut (AUB) Alumni Association. She also holds membership in a number of professional and honorary societies in Kuwait such as the Kuwait Writers Association, Kuwait Journalists Association and Kuwait Teachers Society, Kuwaiti Graduates Society, Kuwait Economic Society, Kuwaiti-British Friendship Society and Kuwaiti-American Friendship Society.
Dr Suad was also a member of the Higher Council for Education in Kuwait, and a current member of the Arab Council for Childhood and Development as well as a founding member of the Arab Cultural Foundation. She is a member of the board of trustees and the executive committee of the Arab Thought Forum, and also a member of the executive committee of the World Muslim Women Organization for South East Asia.
Legacy
In addition to founding Dar Suad Al-Sabah for publishing and distribution as well as the Jaezat Suad Al-Sabah Award, there are two schools named after her; Suad AlSabah Secondary School for Girls in Al-Manssouriyah, Kuwait and Suad Al-Sabah Elementary School in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. The theater of the Kuwait Writers Association is named after her, Dr Suad Al-Sabah Theater in Al-Odailiyah area, and she has had a library named after her by the Arab Media Forum at its venue in Hawalli. Recently, the Suad Al-Sabah Bienalle has been named after her by the Kuwait Arts Association — a contemporary art exhibition and momentous event for painters at all levels every two years. A multitude of literary activities and cultural occasions have been named after her, including The Exhibition of Suad Al-Sabah for the Creative Gulf Kid, The Formative Forum of Suad Al-Sabah and The Festival of Suad Al-Sabah for Gulf Art. Some of her timeless patriotic poems have been taught in Kuwait intermediate and secondary schools as a part of the curriculum (Arabic subject). Dr Suad Al-Sabah has been also a subject of various Master theses and dissertations for PhDs in Arabic poetry, and a number of her verses are used as a curriculum at several universities in the Arab world.
Personal life
Dr Suad Al-Sabah currently lives with her family in their spacious residence, the White Palace (Al-Ghassr AlAbiyadh) which is located in Al-Surrah area where she still writes her new poems brilliantly and draws her beautiful pictures with a sense of creativity. And when she is seen in public as a patron of literature and arts from her presence and support, Dr Suad seems sedate and motherly, so she could now be considered a grande dame of Arabic culture circles.
As a philanthropist
As a Sheikha and one of the members of Al-Sabah royal family, generosity was always the virtue that she inherited from her parents and ancestors. Her estimable philanthropic personality is based on intense religious convictions and strong moral sense. Despite her fame and success, she has secretly given out donations even from her tender age. Dr Suad is a founder of the Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mubarak AlSabah charity in 1992 and she still heads it till date.
Finally, it would be no exaggeration if we rank her with such literary female stalwarts in the Arab world as Nazek Al-Malaekah (Iraq), Fadwa Toughan (Palestine) and Ghada Al-Samman (Syria) in terms of her literary productivity and poetic imagery as well as aesthetic consciousness.
In my humble opinion, she is the only living Arab woman poet who deserves the Nobel Prize in Literature for her phenomenal contributions to the world of literature since 1960s.