AUKMUN Collaborates with Arabic Debate Club, and National Team for Debate in International Open Debate Championship

The American University of Kuwait Model United Nations (AUKMUN) and the Arabic Debate Club collaborated with the National Team for Debate to successfully organize the very first Arabic debate championship at the American University of Kuwait (AUK). The event was titled International Open Debate Championship as the topics of debate relate to international concerns. The championship was open to the public and saw a total of 80 participants which included both judges and debaters.

The championship was under the academic supervision of AUK Assistant Professor of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Farhan as the general academic advisor of the championship. AUKMUN President Ali K. Al-Qallaf acted as the general coordinator of the championship who worked alongside AUKMUN treasurer Fares Al-Shamry, the vice general coordinator. President of the Arabic Debate Club Rawan Boutaiban served as the management coordinator alongside Nasser Al-Mutairi who served as co-coordinator. From the National Debate Team, Eng. Danah Al-Khashan served as the technical coordinator, and Amal Maklad as the media coordinator.

During the opening ceremony, Professor Abdulrahman Al-Farhan mentioned that the main goal of the championship is to enhance the ability of listening to others. He emphasized that we debate in order to get a deeper understanding of different perspectives and build respect between each other regardless of what opinions may be presented. Further, Al-Qallaf added, "The main purpose of this championship is to raise the level of the debating cases from a local to an international level, and this is a new idea in the Arabic debating field."

The debate began with 16 different groups and those numbers were later reduced to eight groups following the qualification round. The final round consisted of the debate team “Takatuf” against team “SFRA”.

Team “Takatuf” won the championship and were presented with their award during the closing ceremony of the debate. Team “Takatuf” consisted of debaters Hamad Al-Khudhari, Abdulaziz Al-Saif, Bader Al-Muqata, and Salem Al-Mutairi.  As for the best speakers awards, Rayan Al-Refaei won the first-place award, Abdulaziz Al-Enezi won the second-place award, and Mohammad Al-Obaidi won the third-place award.
 

Championship academic supervisor, Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Farhan during his speech
  

General coordinator of the championship, Ali Al-Qallaf during his speech
 

First-place winners of the championship receiving an award
 

Second-place winners of the championship receiving an award
  

Group photo of the championship attendees