Asharq Al-Awsat's Columnist Amal Moussa Wins Int’l Catullo Award for Poetry

Tunisia Minister of Family, Women, Children and the Elderly Amal Belhadji Moussa
Tunisia Minister of Family, Women, Children and the Elderly Amal Belhadji Moussa
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Asharq Al-Awsat's Columnist Amal Moussa Wins Int’l Catullo Award for Poetry

Tunisia Minister of Family, Women, Children and the Elderly Amal Belhadji Moussa
Tunisia Minister of Family, Women, Children and the Elderly Amal Belhadji Moussa

The Tunisian poet and writer, Amal Belhadj Moussa, won the Catillo International Prize for Poetry 2022, granted by the World Poetry Academy.

The World Poetry Academy was established in June 2001 in Italy with the support of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The jury indicated that it wanted to crown the sentiment and thought described in the poetic experience of the poet.

It also indicated that it chose Moussa from among international candidates to present a certificate of appreciation for the beautiful, thriving contemporary female poetry in the Arab countries and a tribute to the poet.

Amal Moussa is considered a symbolic figure among the few Arab female creators to be published in Italy.

Moussa currently holds the position of Minister of Family, Women, Children, and the Elderly, in Tunisia.

She has six collections of poetry, which have been translated into Italian, French, Turkish, English, and Spanish.

Her collections include Female of Water (1996), Emerald's Bashfulness (1998), Like Me the Stars Sparkle (2010, Rainy Body (2010), Life Has Not Put Its Makeup Yet (2017), In Love, and Don't Look into the River (2021).

The Minister received many awards, namely the first prize for the best Arab production on women's issues from the Arab Women's Organization in 2006, the Zubaida Bashir award for the best Literary Production in 2018, and several honors in many Tunisian poetry festivals, and various Arab countries, Europe, and the US.

Moussa is an academic and a weekly columnist in Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. She has written publications in sociology, political Islam, youth and religiosity, and the sociology of daily life.



World's Oldest Person, a Brazilian Nun, Dies Aged 116

Nuns walk down stairs in the center of Rome on April 30, 2025. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)
Nuns walk down stairs in the center of Rome on April 30, 2025. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)
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World's Oldest Person, a Brazilian Nun, Dies Aged 116

Nuns walk down stairs in the center of Rome on April 30, 2025. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)
Nuns walk down stairs in the center of Rome on April 30, 2025. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)

The world's oldest person, Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, died Wednesday at the age of 116, having barely survived infancy and attributing her long life to God, her order and two longevity trackers said.

The title now passes to Ethel Caterham, a resident of Surrey, England, who is 115 years old, according to the US Gerontological Research Group (GRG) and the LongeviQuest database.

Born on June 8, 1908, Canabarro became the world's oldest person following the death in January of Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka, who was also aged 116.

The Congregation of Teresian Sisters of Brazil in Porto Alegre announced Canabarro's passing Wednesday in a statement in which it gave thanks "for the dedication and devotion" she had shown in life, AFP reported.

LongeviQuest, in an obituary, said Canabarro had been a frail child, and "many doubted she would survive."

She became a nun in 1934 at the age of 26, between World Wars I and II.

Canabarro had attributed her longevity to God, saying: "He is the secret of life. He is the secret of everything," according to LongeviQuest.

For her 110th birthday, she received a blessing from Pope Francis, who himself died last Monday aged 88.

Although she had claimed her date of birth was May 27, 1908, "her documented birth date according to records is June 8, 1908," GRG director Robert Young told AFP in January.

LongeviQuest said Canabarro had been the 15th-oldest documented person in history, and the second-oldest nun after France's Lucile Randon, who lived to the age of 118 and died in 2023.