First-ever Arab intellectual wins Grinzane Cavour Award

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Italy s prestigious 20-year old Grinzane Cavour Award, which previously went to 20 world renowned intellectuals, writers and philosophers, will now be awarded to Arab intellectual Tarek Heggy at a ceremony in Otranto, Southern Italy on November 8th.

The awarding ceremony will be attended by Italy s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a host of ministers of culture from several European counties as well as a constellation of Nobel Laureates including Jose Saramago, Nadine Gordimer, Wole Soyinka and Günter Grass who all won the Grinzane Cavour Prize before becoming winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

This year, the Grinzane Cavour Prize will be awarded for the first time in its history to this Arab leading literary and intellectual figure who built a fully-integrated enlightenment approach that would later give shape to his intellectual project with the publication of his first book 30 years ago.

Heggy s intellectual project went through 3 distinct periods: the first period saw 3 books which dealt a comprehensive critique to the Marxist and socialist theories and practices while the second phase featured a series of 7 books which give a detailed description and diagnosis of the political and social, political, economic, cultural and educational problems facing the Arab World; In the id 1990 s, Al-Heggy started to focus on the negative aspects of the Arab societies prevailing cultural climate which has its roots in the highly negative understanding and interpretation of religion which went in line with extremism in curricula adopted by many Arab educational institutions.

Besides writing 17 books in Arabic, Heggy repertoire includes 5 books in English (published during the 3rd period) which dealt with intellectual, cultural and educational maladies prevailing in most of the Arab cultural landscapes.

Throughout the last ten years, Heggy s intellectual project gained visibility at most international institutions and think tanks.. The University of Toronto decided to establish a permanent annual scholarship for post-graduate studies in Comparative Jewish/Muslim relations named after Heggy who also co-established The Coptic Studies Chair at The American University in Cairo (AUC).
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Among Heggy s most recent accomplishments is a cultural enlightenment project for "Averroes & Maimonides Council", a foundation dedicated to cultural exchange, being implemented in collaboration with Al Waref Institute founded by Marah Bukai in Washington D.C.

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