I was about five years old when my father's eldest brother – an imam at a mosque – stormed into our house and broke the wooden sculptures that my father was working on. "You are creating statues!" he shouted, also making clear my paternal grandmother's disapproval. I thought the sculptures were beautiful and didn't understand why my uncle was destroying them. Because my father was younger, he didn't dare answer back. I later asked why my uncle was enraged and my father explained that his family were very traditional and that we were different.
To understand this incident necessitates a look at my father’s orthodox Muslim family and upbringing, one so far removed from visual art, which makes his story remarkable and awe-inspiring. Raised in Marat, a historical town in Saudi Arabia, a little over an hour from Riyadh by car, he was schooled by Egyptian teachers, who encouraged his passion for calligraphy.
Italy answered hundreds of questions for him and made him realise his ambition."
He travelled to Egypt with them in 1960, and it was there, at the age of 20, that he met and married my mother. They returned to Marat, a town with barely any paved roads, prone to power cuts and where water had to be sourced from wells. There, she got sick. And so, they moved to Riyadh and began a modern life, one that forever changed my father – he wore pyjamas instead of a thobe, was introduced to new cuisine and had begun making sculptures of women and camels with found objects, plaster and wood. He took up a job at the kingdom's national TV station, where, among other things, he designed the backdrop for Saudi singer, Mohammed Abdu's performances. All of these developments augmented his family's discontentment, but they most certainly enlightened my father, who inched closer and closer to his dream of becoming an artist.
By the late 1960s, the Ministry of Communication had begun offering scholarships and my father was awarded one in 1970 to the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze in Florence. My mother, brother, sister and I followed him a year later when I was seven, and we lived there for three beautiful years, during which we visited Rome, Venice and other magical places in Italy. I would go with him to the Academy and watch him draw nude models. "This isn't wrong or shameful," my mother would explain. "This is art." Italy answered hundreds of questions for him and made him realise his ambition.
He returned to Riyadh with such energy, such drive and a greater understanding of art, so much so that he chose not to work at the TV station any more, to focus solely on his art. This caused tension between my parents, which was further fuelled by his new-found concept for an art space. My mother was thinking about finances and my father was pursuing his dreams. To make matters worse, he painted incessantly, which cramped our apartment.
She thought he had lost his mind. He proved her wrong. What began as a commercially successful art supply store with goods imported from Rome became Dar Al Funoon Al Sa’udiyyah (The Saudi Art House) in 1979. The first institute of its kind in the Arabian Gulf, it staged exhibitions, mentored young artists, held competitions, published art catalogues, housed a foundry and a framing studio, and put on an exciting programme of artistic events.
I painted, too, using his palette with leftover colours. It was 1984 when I saw him frame one of my paintings and hang it as part of an exhibition. I was elated. That’s the kind of man he was – one who encouraged everyone with a talent. I would paint at night and hang the work at the studio’s entrance to make sure he saw it. His smile the next day confirmed his approval, and that pushed me.
After initially focusing on Saudi talents – with greats such as Abdulrahman Al Sulaiman, the space became a magnet for Gulf artists, too, such as Abdul Rasool Salman from Kuwait, and pioneered in showing the work of Saudi women artists such as Safeya Binzagr and Sharifa Al Sudairi. The government took note and recruited him as its representative for cultural activities in the Kingdom and abroad; this led to the development of art collections for various ministries that my father managed. He wrote for local papers and was on TV often. It was a golden age; we lived well.
Until the catastrophe: the institute went bankrupt. He had received a contract to create monumental sculptures, for which he took a loan to realise them and bought land for this workspace. But the project was halted and everything shattered. Severely in debt, he tried to salvage the situation to no avail. Dar Al Funoon Al Sa'udiyyah was publicly auctioned in 1995. To this day, the sculptures sit in the same factory they were born in.
He returned to Florence, and then moved to Prato, where we supported him financially. By that time, I had graduated with a degree in chemistry and married Abdullah, who was given a scholarship to study in the US. We had our first two children and my father encouraged me to pursue art while there. "This is your chance," he would say, and so I did, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in art from the Eastern Michigan University.
He was lonely in Italy. My mother didn't go with him; she needed to be with my younger siblings. Though they loved each other a lot, my father couldn't bear to see my mother in pain after the jolt of losing the institute and their livelihood. My husband visited him in Italy; they were very close, and they talked about plans to open a studio and work on a project. Nothing ever came to pass. It was 1997 when Abdullah received the call notifying him that my father had died of a heart attack. We took him back to Saudi Arabia from Prato, and buried him in Riyadh. It was such a dark time.
Today, I feel responsible for his work and legacy. I feel like he gave a lot to everyone – to artists, the country, the government, Gulf artists – and he deserves credit. I opened an institute – the Saudi Art House Reactivated – in 2018, to replicate what my father did. I want to make sure his story is told the right way and for his contributions to live on.
Remembering the Artist is our series that features artists from the region
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
MATCH INFO
Barcelona 4 (Messi 23' pen, 45 1', 48', Busquets 85')
Celta Vigo 1 (Olaza 42')
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
OIL PLEDGE
At the start of Russia's invasion, IEA member countries held 1.5 billion barrels in public reserves and about 575 million barrels under obligations with industry, according to the agency's website. The two collective actions of the IEA this year of 62.7 million barrels, which was agreed on March 1, and this week's 120 million barrels amount to 9 per cent of total emergency reserves, it added.
Miguel Cotto world titles:
WBO Light Welterweight champion - 2004-06
WBA Welterweight champion – 2006-08
WBO Welterweight champion – Feb 2009-Nov 2009
WBA Light Middleweight champion – 2010-12
WBC Middleweight champion – 2014-15
WBO Light Middleweight champion – Aug 2017-Dec 2017
THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
What is dialysis?
Dialysis is a way of cleaning your blood when your kidneys fail and can no longer do the job.
It gets rid of your body's wastes, extra salt and water, and helps to control your blood pressure. The main cause of kidney failure is diabetes and hypertension.
There are two kinds of dialysis — haemodialysis and peritoneal.
In haemodialysis, blood is pumped out of your body to an artificial kidney machine that filter your blood and returns it to your body by tubes.
In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter. Wastes are taken out by means of a cleansing fluid which is washed in and out of your belly in cycles.
It isn’t an option for everyone but if eligible, can be done at home by the patient or caregiver. This, as opposed to home haemodialysis, is covered by insurance in the UAE.
Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Biography
Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day
Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour
Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour
Best vacation: Returning home to China
Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument
Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes
Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems
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Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
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Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
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Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
