AUK Professor Ghaidaa Mohamad Discusses Excerpts and Sayings by Mahatma Gandhi

On March 24, Ms. Ghaidaa Mohamad, Instructor of Arabic for the Department of Arabic and Foreign Languages at the American University of Kuwait (AUK) presented her book, Excerpts and Sayings by Mahatma Gandhi, to the members of the AUK community as part of the ongoing Faculty Speaker Series. The book contains a collection of Gandhi's most famous sayings translated into Arabic, and summarizes many of Gandhi's ideas relating to education, economy, peaceful resistance, ethics, education, and industries.

Excerpts and Sayings by Mahatma Gandhi is a 130 page book that contains items selected, and translated, by the author which she believes reflect Gandhi's life philosophy in general, and contains images of Gandhi taken throughout his life.

"Throughout this project, I have become acquainted with translation as a tool, a sort of a magic wand that resurrects the dead. I found myself living Gandhi's thoughts, emotions, behavior and choices as I browsed through 18 of his works, searching for his most enlightening quotes. And they were many," explained the author. The book also covers a variety of topics the assassinated leader came across during his intellectual and philosophical journey.

In her presentation, Ms. Mohamad emphasized Gandhi's ideas on social activism and human rights, and she gave local and international examples of people who devote their lives to noble missions. She also shed light on Gandhiâs environmental philosophy, and his idea on the relationship between cities and villages.

The book was published by Masaa Publishing, Bahrain; a publishing house that is known for its encouragement and support of writers within the GCC. They have recently been involved in a fiction writing competition in Bahrain, and have launched the Ali Al Safi Fund, named after a promising young poet who died in an accident ten years ago, to support young and talented GCC poets.

Following her presentation, Ms. Mohamad proceeded to sign copies of her book for the attendees.

In November 2013, Excerpts and Sayings by Mahatma Gandhi was released and sold by Masaa Publishing during the annual Book Fair in Kuwait last year, and is now available at AUK bookstore. For further information, contact Masaa Publishing (instagram @masaapublishing).

Released by the Office of Public Affairs on the 10th April 2014

Photography by the Office of Public Affairs (C) 2014