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Your Royal Highness Princess Besma! Ladies and Gentlemen! Dear guests!

In the name of Arab Alliance of Women in Music we welcome you all to the opening night of our Alliance.
We are lucky to have this evening a distinguished Delegation from Italy, whom we especially welcome.
Tonight is a very important night for us as we can officially announce the establishment of the Arab Alliance of Women in Music based in Jordan.

We had a long way to go to reach this result and I am happy that with the help of real enthusiasts we could make it.
In November of 1998 we had a big meeting with ladies of Amman in the presence of H.R.H.Princess Magda and suggested to start a new Association for women involved in music.
Through my own experience and attending many musical forums, where I was invited personally I didn’t meet many of the women-musicians from Arab countries.
I think it is the right time to pay attention to this situation as well as the position of women in Arab society has changed in the last 30 years significantly. You can find women in every aspect of life: politics, business, education and Art. This affects music as well. We had good examples to follow: IAWM, based in USA and Donna and Musica in Italy, Asian Composer’s League and Frau und Musik in Germany.
We were advised to contact JORDAN HASHEMITE FUND FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT supervised by H.R.H. Princess Besma. They became our main supporters in this project. Through this fund with the help of Mrs. Ilham Zoumat we met our future lawyer Mrs. Asma Khayder, who followed our plans and looked for our legal rights in establishing an NGO.

In our Alliance we focus not only on professional musicians, but also on those who love and support Music in anyway they can. We need this support as well as we are at the beginning of the establishment.

I would like to mention here that we are not just another feminist organisation, but we want to have a new look on the History and Role of women in the Past and Present of our region. Organizing our efforts on the field of music, musical research and education in cooperation with other institutions involved in activities that are related to our Alliance we can play a vital role for the further development of music traditions in our part of the World.

This is the land of ancient civilizations. It is enough to say that there is evidence of participation of women in music dating back 4600 years. Archeological discovery shows that Women-musicians were buried together with their instruments in Imperial graves in the ancient city of UR, south of Babylon.

Other important discoveries were done in the same area: three musical instruments “The Golden Harp”, which is in the Iraqi Museum,” The Silver Harp”, which is in the British Museum and “The Boat shape”Harp, which is in the Pennsylvania Museum today. All those instruments were used and women performed music on them.

We need to mention the great Arab culture that spread from Baghdad to Andlusian Spain, which played a significant role in the development of the Renaissance in Europe.

The 20th century brought new traditions in music of the Middle East. Many musicians educated in Europe and the States brought a new approach to the music of our region.

I hope that in the near future we will be able to contact our colleagues from other Arab countries and study the situation and perspectives on this field. We will try to remember everyone who contributed to the development of culture in our region. At this time I would like to mention, Yusra Arnita, who passed away a few weeks ago. She played a significant role in studies of traditional Arabic music. She was the wife of the famous Palestinian composer, Salvatore Arnita and a remarkable person by herself.

There is much more to say about the situation of women in the Arab World, but tonight we want just to thank everybody who helped us to establish the Arab Alliance of Women in Music:

The Jordan Hashemite Fund for Human Development for all help and support.

The Ministry of Culture for accepting us as an NGO connected to this Ministry.

The Municipality of Amman and Ahlia school for girls, who will provide us with place for our Alliance.

All companies and individuals, who helped us to organize this evening.

The Royal Cultural Center and Mr.Mohammed Al Showakbeh for cooperation.

Mrs.Widad Orfali, who gave her permission to use one of her paintings for our flyer.

The National Music Conservatory and Mr.Kifah Fakhouri for cooperation and providing us with place for some of our meetings and the possibility to perform tonight’s concert.

We thank the students, faculty members, and the orchestra of the Conservatory under the direction of Mr. Mohammad Othman Sidiq for participation in tonight’s Concert.

And all this would not be possible without the hard work of our Active Board members: Mary, Helene and Lillian Hallak, Malak Al Taher, Marina Mango, Barbra Shahin, Nagam Alwan, Lynette Vincent, Rita Madi, Zahra Khalifeh, Dana Sakkijha, and Julie Carter-Sarayrah.

Deepest thanks for support to our General Assembly members: Mona Masri-Rusheidat , Samia Ghanum, Asma Khayder, Tania Nasir, Alia Armouti-Homoud, Muna Zawaidih,Nejwa Kawar,Lana Zananiri,Ilham Zoumot,Tamara Dagestani,SelwaAl Taki KURDI, Mona Alkhalaileh , Abeer Abdelrahim, Reem Tarazi

Thank you all for attendance of the opening night of Arab Alliance of Women In Music and enjoy tonight’s Concert.