Though he has won awards in numerous competitions, Hussein acknowledged that “you can’t live on this,” the artistic handwriting of Arabic script. Last week, the United Nations culture agency declared Arabic calligraphy an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,” following a campaign by 16 countries led by Saudi Arabia and including Iraq. He hopes it will push “the Iraqi government and the autonomous Kurdistan region to adopt serious measures” to support calligraphy — “khat” in Arabic — and its artists. But in impoverished, war-scarred Iraq, there is no support from the government “whether for calligraphy or for other arts,” Hussein lamented. “The survival of Arabic calligraphy depends on the support of the state.”It depends, too, on the devotion of men like Hussein and Ramadan.

Source: Libya Today December 23, 2021 00:53 UTC