The Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural, Organization (ICESCO) is pleased to announce the winners of its award “Bayan Award for Creative Expression in Arabic,” which contributes to the development of written and oral Arabic skills among non-native students at all levels and from countries worldwide.

The nomination for the award was open for three categories (children, teens, and university students) through the oral expression of a text he/she wrote in Arabic. Participation conditions included a time limit on videos of three minutes for children, four minutes for teens, and five minutes for young people. The subject of the video must be original content, and Arabic cannot be the participants’ native language.

ICESCO offered equal opportunities to students from three geographical areas (African region, Asian and Australian regions, and European and American regions). Each winner per category will receive USD 2,000 for youth, USD 1,500 teens, and USD 1,000 for children.

Winners for children category are from Asia:

1. Van Massena El Muwaehib Bin Mas’udin, Islamic Zhuhri Irshad School, Signapore;

2. Abdul Hadi Muaiyyad bin Haji Azrol, Falah School, Brunei.

Winners for the teens category are from Europe and Asia:

1. Naser Sabic, Othman Rejovitch School in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2. A Deebah Wasani, Girls Religious Institute in Yala, Thailand.

The youth category included four winners from Europe and Asia, and two from Africa:

1. Riad Subasic, Islamic Studies College, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2. Ku Abdullah Hakim bin Ku Sulong, Malaysian Science University, Malaysia.

3. Abdoulahi Gaye, Senegalese, Dar El Hadith El Hassania Establishment, Morocco.

4. Akanbi Ridwan Ayomide, Abu Baker Seddik Institute for Traditional Education, Morocco.

Quality, design and technical direction, and attention to the educational contents marked the participants’ outputs.

The jury took into consideration the ongoing pandemic circumstances under which the videos were prepared. The constraints were namely due to lockdown, the technical disparities between students from disadvantages regions and rich countries.

Given the inability to hold in-person ceremony to celebrate the winners, ICESCO will start the transfer of corresponding financial rewards. The Organization will postpone the official ceremony until the end of the health emergency, during which winners will receive certificates and medals.

Considering the strong participation in the first staging of the award, ICESCO’s General Directorate decided to turn the “Bayan Award” into an annual contest. The measure seeks to encourage creative non-native Arabic students develop their language skills, talents, and creative potentials.