>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. [ Silence ] >> Mary-Jane Deeb: Good afternoon. And I'm delighted to welcome you all to the African Middle East Division Reading Room. I'm Mary-Jane Deeb, Chief of the Division, and I'm really delighted today to welcome to our library Aysha Murad, the Cultural Attache at the Embassy of Bahrain. In fact, we are discussing a major project that we're doing with Bahrain and World Digital Library here at the Library of Congress. This Division actually is responsible for 77 countries, so in addition to the whole Arab world, the entire African continent, we are also responsible for the rest of the Middle East, for Iran, for Turkey, for Central Asia, and we are quite expansionist. We go to Armenia and Georgia and further into Afghanistan. And so we're always delighted when people from the region come and talk about their countries and their collections and work they're doing there in addition to what we do, which is brief people about our materials, our collections, and our films, music, books, serials, and everything that we hold here So I'm again, very happy that we have a professional woman, scholar, a person who has an interest in her own country but also in the relations within her country and the U.S., and she will be here, making a presentation and informing us, enlightening us on what is happening today in Bahrain. Before she does that, we're going to have Dr. Muhannad Salhi introduce here. Dr. Muhannad Salhi w is himself an expert Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, a scholar who has written, and we're delighted to have him as one of our newest members in the Division. He's an Arab world specialist today and has already been doing, leaving his mark both in terms of acquisition, in terms of briefings in the work he's been doing. So Muhannad will now introduce the speaker, and again, thank you very much for coming. [ Applause ] >> Muhannad Salhi: Thank you. Thank you, Mary Jane. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you all for coming. Our speaker today, Mrs. Aysha Murad, was appointed as Cultural Counselor by the Ministry of Education in Bahrain as their official representative to the United States and Canada. She is the director of the Cultural Office at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain in Washington, D.C., and was appointed as the Cultural Counselor at the Embassy in December 2006. Mrs. Murad has the overall administrative responsibility for the Cultural Office with direct oversight of the authentication, accounting and administrative issues. She's responsible for policy matters, strategic planning and outreach to the U.S. universities and educational and cultural agencies. The Cultural Counselor also supervises the Bahraini-sponsored and private undergraduate and graduate scholars, and is committed to fostering and enhancing the U.S. Bahraini culture and educational relations. Furthermore, Mrs. Murad is establishing linkages and cooperative endeavors to enhance cross cultural understanding between Bahrain and American society at large. From 1999 until November 2006, Mrs. Murad worked as Senior Educational Specialist and the Directorate of Private Education at the Ministry of Education in Bahrain. During her career as Senior Educational Specialist, Mrs. Murad served on many committees where she worked on researching and developing education policies. Mrs. Murad is also a part-time lecturer at the University of Bahrain. In addition, Mrs. Murad served as the Ministry of Education's representative on two private school Boards of Governors. In 1992, Mrs. Aysha Murad received her Master's of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Oregon. In 2002 she enrolled in a part-time international doctorate program on school effectiveness and improvement at the University of London. Note to the audience: This event is being videotaped for subsequent broadcast on the Library's Web site and other media. The audience is encouraged to offer comments and raise questions during the formal question and answer period, but please be advised that your voice and image may be recorded and later broadcast as part of this event. By participating in the question and answer period, you are consenting to the Library's possible reproduction and transmission of your remarks. So now, without further adieu, please welcome Ms. Aysha Murad. [ Applause ] >> Aysha Murad: Thank you very much for that kind introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. It is indeed a great pleasure to speak to this distinguished gathering. I would like to thank the Near East Section at the African Middle Eastern Division of the Librayr of Congress for granting me this opportunity to speak about my lovely country Bahrain. It is indeed an honor and great pleasure. I would like to personally thank Dr. Mary-Jane Deeb, the Division Chief, Dr. Christopher Murphy, head of the Near East Section, and the Arab Specialist of the Library of Congress, Dr. Muhannad Salhi. Thank you very much. I would like to welcome you to Bahrain, a truly open society in the heart of the Arabian Gulf. For centuries the Bahraini people have been at the crossroads of the Middle East, and in the process developed a culture of understanding. We are here as an embassy to reach out to audiences across the United States with a message of friendship that is based on 100 years of American and Bahrainis working together. Bahrain is modern, democratic and politically stable, and was once part of an ancient trade route connecting the East and West, and now is an important business and financial center. The Kingdom of Bahrain is an archipelago. There are 53 islands. We are 16 miles off the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia. Bahrain is linked to Saudi Arabia by a causeway. It is called King Fahat Causeway. It is about 16 miles, which was open to the public in 1986 and will soon be joined with cutter by another causeway, expected to be the longest in the world, about 25 miles and is expected to bring in easy access to a large base of potential visitors. Bahrain, we are a small nation. We are 33 island but we are a small nation. Bahrain is -- to make it easier, we are 3 times the size of Washington, D.C. as you can see, and we are just one time the size of New York City. However, our size is not reflection of our commitments, Bahrain has a population of 1 million people. 50% of the population there are citizens. The other 50 there are expatriates. We are a very pluralistic multicultural society. Bahrain, Arabic is the official language but English and Arabic are widely used in business and English is widely spoken and taught in our schools from grade 1, from the first grade. Bahrain has a strong heritage, which is even recognized by the UNESCO. The UNESCO identified Qal'at al-Bahrai or the Fort of Bahrain, which was built by the Portuguese when they were conquered by it in the 1500s. It was identified recently as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. And just two years ago, we built a site museum in the same location, which gives a good description of the history of that part. The culture of Bahrain is a mixture of many castes and religious groups. Predominantly a Muslim country, but the people of Bahrain freely practice besides Islam, other religions -- Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Bahrai and other Asian religions. Al Fateh Mosque, it is a place of worship for Muslims, but tourists have been invited to tour it, so all the tourists are welcome to go inside the Mosque to experience the Islamic designs and to read about the history of that architecture heritage of Bahrain. In the previous picture, you could see a church and the background of Mosque. Actually in the same area, there is a synagogue. So within one square mile, you can see a mosque, a church, and a synagogue. There are more than 9 churches, but the synagogue was closed up on the crest of the small Jewish community many years ago. His Majesty the King introduced political reform after his ascension in 1999, and the country turned into a constitutional monarchy. It become constitution after the introduction of political reform. It is headed by the King as the head of the state, the prime minster as the head of the executive power, and bicameral parliament. The executive power includes the prime minister and the cabinet ministers, and they draw the general policy for the country. The legislative council or the branch, there are 3 branches, the executive, the legislative and the judicial. The legislative power is vested in the National Council with a bicameral parliament. We have the House of Representatives, with 40 directly elected people, elected numbers by the people and 40 appointed members by the King. Bahraini women, men and women, went to the polls on October 24, 2002, to vote in the national elections. That was the first national election in which women were allowed to vote, not just to vote, to stand as candidates as well. The judicial power, one of the most important features of the Bahraini legal system is the separation of all the powers. The judicial power is very separate from the executive and the legislative, and it is divided into 2 sections, the civil courts and the legislative courts. Bahrain's history goes back a long, long way. You could ask me how long? Well, I'm just trying to make it more interesting. Well, consider this. The Samarians from Ancient Mesopotamia are widely believed to be the first to discover the art of writing. They etched man's earliest adventures onto clay tablets. Among the tears were the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Noah and the Great Baluch and the Epic of Gilgamesh, which gave the first mention of Bahrain, then known as Dilmun. This means that Bahrain did not only exist in those prehistoric times, it was apparently very important in the region. King Gilgamesh of Irq, which is Iraq, he set the secret of eternal life in the seas -- he set the secret of eternal life, and this he believed lay in the seas surrounding Dilmun, which was composed of sweet water that gushed from underground streams to mingle with salty seawater that's forming 2 seas, to which Bahrain owes its name. Bahr is sea. Bahr is sea in Arabic, and its name is two, so Bahrain means two seas. Please listen to this verse from the Epic. There is a plant that grows under the water. It has the prickle like a thorn. Like a rose it will wound your hand, but if your hand succeed in taking it, then that will restore his lush youth to a man. King Gilgamesh, what King Gilgamesh, the oyster is believed to be a plant, and what King Gilgamesh held in his hand is believed to be a pearl. Because even 5,000 years ago Bahrain was very famous for his dazzling natural pearls, which owe their special luster to the oysters found at the confluence of the two seas, the salty and the sweet water. So King Gilgamesh, he landed in Bahrain 5,000 years earlier in search of that flower or eternity flower. He search, and Bahrain was called Genital Hulud, or immortally or eternity paradise. And King Gilgamesh, 5,000 years earlier he looked for the flower, this eternity flower along the shores of Bahrain, then known as Dilmun. There are many archeological sites in Bahrain. I will not get into that. You need to come to Bahrain to experience it. Whatever I say will never describe these Dilmun seas. So Bahrain, Dilmun civilization was in Bahrain and these are Dilmun seas. Dilmun seas have the commercial and cultural significance, because they tell us now about how life was in Bahrain during the Dilmun civilization. There are different pictures, pictures of animals, pictures of palm trees and pictures of heroes. 500 of these Dilmun seas, they are very small. They are like a stamp, like a ring that has a stamp, and it is made of soft sand. The original ones, they are on display at the Bahrain National Museum, and 500 of these were found in the burial mounds in Bahrain. In Bahrain we have the largest ancient cemetery in the world, according to the research. The books, we have many books. We have a well-researched history. You will not know it until you go to the Museum of Bahrain. You will see all these books written by the excavation, expeditions who came in the 1800, 1900. So in these burial mounds, 500 of these Dilmun seas were found in Bahrain, so far. This is a letter also. His Majesty the King described the history of Bahrain from the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his book "First Light," there are rare manuscripts. Among them includes this letter from Prophet Mohammad, peace be of him, to the rule of Bahrain then. And one there been Sawa Hadrami. His name is written here. His is inviting -- Prophet Mohammad is inviting the ruler of Bahrain to Islam. Our economy, we were a very poor nation until the late 1920s. Their diving, fishing, formed the backbone of the local economy. This industry collapsed after the appearance of the culture pearls from Japan, but we were lucky, because shortly oil was discovered in Bahrain. Could you guess who discovered oil in Bahrain? It was an American company, so we have a long-standing relationship with the United States that goes back more than 100 years ago. Oil was discovered in Bahrain in 1952, and many pearl divers chose to work in the oil industry because it was more lucrative and less dangerous. In this picture you see Carter. In the middle was the most famous pearl merchants in Bahrain. This is in the beginning of the 20th century. The pearls of Bahrain are dazzling to people from, it was started by famous people like Carter, Queen Elizabeth I and other famous visitors. They came to Bahrain to buy these pearls for their business, but after the collapse of the pearl diving industry oil was discovered. But we were the first to discover oil in the Arabian Gulf, and we are the first to run out of it. We are not in danger of running out of oil the next 10 years, but in 25, 20, 25 we will be running out of oil. We are not as rich or as endowed with the oil reserves of our neighboring countries. We led the economic development in the Arabian Gulf, having been the first country to discover oil. But I think we had a clear vision long back, because we diversified. We are internationally known for the most diversified economy. We diversified economy, our economy 40 years ago. I was speaking at the American University Kogod School of Business last week, and I mentioned that we had the most diversified economy, our neighboring countries diversified 15 years ago. He corrected me. He said 10 years ago. Some of our neighbors started 10 and 15 years ago, but Bahrain has started 40 years ago, and I think it was a very smart vision, because we are planning now away from the oil and gas reserves into other industries which Bahrain offers significant strength in them. Our economic development strategy is -- these are the oil industry. You will see the pearl divers going to work, and they are going back home now after the end of the day. So we diversified. Our economic development strategy is focusing on 6 sectors: the financial sector, tourism, education and training, business services, logistics, and I'm missing one - downstream industries. But there is a good track record of more sectors developing like business and conferences, exhibitions. Bahrain is a center for conference meetings, so there are other sectors that are developing in Bahrain. Our expectation is to make the private sector the engine for growth. We are reducing the role of government and we are not depending on government sector. We are avoiding acerbic crunch down the line and we are trying to make our education system more responsive to the needs of the labor market. This is the financial sector. We are developing -- this is one of the biggest project in Bahrain. Some people asked me last week, why do you need a financial sector? I said, well, we don't have a physical space that accommodates all this growing financial sector. The financial sector is creating more jobs for the Bahraini people. We have undertaken some labor market reform to create more good quality jobs for the Bahrainis, because over the next 10 years, 100s of Bahrainis, many of them are women, young students who graduate from high school, they will not be able to find good jobs. So we are changing our current economic model with historic reliance on public sector job, to find more jobs for the Bahrainis. Education, this is picture. Our relation with the United States goes more than 100 years ago. This is a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Zwimmer. The American mission that has came to Bahrain in the 19th century, late 19th century, they started the first hospital, formal hospital in 1883. And then they started -- Mr. Zwimmer and Mrs. Zwimmer, they started the first girls' private school in Bahrain. It is a private school in Bahrain. It is a private school. The school still exists. It's the private school. It was American Mission School and now it's called Al Rajah School. Bahraini people used to go, parents used to send their children to Koran schools like this one. I remember when I was little I was going to school, but my mother during the summer vacation, sent me to the same school to learn Koran. And usually they separate the girls from the boys. But I remember, I was with the boys because my brother was with me. I have summer of that. But Bahrain has been at the vanguard of education, which is progress in the region, establishing the first boy's school in 1919 and giving its female population an equal access to its educational resources. The first school for girls was started in 1928, so that was when the country was still very poor. So this also shows a commitment on part of the leadership and the people who rule Bahrain then. So the first girl's school started in 1928, and that was also the first girl's school in the Gulf, not just in Bahrain, the first boy's and girl's school in the Gulf. I was speaking clear in with my kinder college in California with Ambassador Nunu, last year. And the Kuwait, the son of the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister was among the audience. I looked at him and I said that the Kuwaiti Minister of Information was very kind to mention Now, the country boasts a literacy rate of 87%, one of the highest in the region. I was speaking with Ward Bank last week, and I looked at the gentleman who was responsible for education sector, and he nodded. So this is one of the highest literacy rates in the region. This means that 11% of government's expenditure is directed towards education. We have always thought that we had a well-developed education system, but the recent Ward Bank report about the Middle East was not very positive. We were very alarmed, so we had a diagnostic in 2005 to see what was the problem with the education system. I remember arguing in one of my papers to the University of London that whatever went inside Embassy I never called reform before 2000. My start in 2002 my first paper I argued, I said, whatever the Ministry of Education calls reform, as an educator I don't call it reform. They were a set of initiatives. I didn't feel they were serious reform, but since 2005 we have been undertaking subessential reform initiatives to develop our education system at all levels -- grade 1 to 12 vocational education and higher education. We're trying to make our higher education facilities more responsive to their needs of the labor market. Many Bahrainis, there are a group of Bahrainis not employed because they are not meeting the skills of the private sector. So we are conducting all these reforms to, or undertaking these subessential reforms to make sure that we can compete in this -- but to be honest with you, despite all these reforms in Bahrain that were initiated since 2005 by His Honor Prince Salman, our Crown Prince, and organized by the Economic Development Board, to tackle the widening inequality gap in global education, and despite the priority that our government has a place in education, the rate of eternal education reform has been subessential. Education is one of the most pressing issues facing Bahrain. It is not just one of the pressing issues facing Bahrain, I heard Secretary of Education Arnold Duncan in January saying that it is one of the most pressing issues facing the United States. We believe that preparing young people for success in life is not just a moral obligation. It's an economic imperative, and it's the only path away from poverty. It is the civil right of our generations, so Bahrain now, I can't say confidently, Bahrain is building a solid education system to support its young democracy. It is firmly believed that democracy and development, they go together and development reduces extremism and poverty. Ambassador Nunu was asking George Washington -- I was with her -- how you are tackling extremism, how you are addressing that issue. So we told them through education. We are building a solid education system to tackle or to address these issues poverty, because it is not just a threat to international peace; it's a treat to our peace as a country. Now, Bahrain, we have implemented different programs by looking, but this is one of the recent ones. We started the King Hamad, Future of Schools Project in our schools, as you can see. The purpose was to start, to create a network of the schools within Bahrain and to introduce the idea of accessible education for all. Bahrain is one of the few countries in the Middle East to meet the goals of education for all, for all by 2015, according to the Monitor Continuing Education report, the UNESCO Continuing Education repot. The form included creating a quality assurance authority. We have one national university, one regional university, offers programs in medical and medicine, business, engineering, law, IT, and we have a teaching and training college. Some of the initiatives that we identified tackled the problem with education was creating a quality assurance authority, starting a teaching/training college, improvement of upper secondary education, and establishing a polytechnic school, the one that you just saw. It was opened 2 years ago. I met with Dr. John Scott. He's very interested in aligning with U.S. universities. [ Silence ] >> Guess what will I be speaking here, can you? I don't know if the pictures are clear. They're clear for me because some of them still are in the memory. I haven't lived in those houses, but this is how Bahraini society was poor before discovered oil. My grandmother said that we were not from a wealthy family. She said that we lived in one of the houses that is made from the trunk of the palm trees. Palm trees is very important for Bahrain and has always been. Everything in this date palm tree was important for Bahrain. We built our houses and then we weaved the baskets, things that we used in everyday life, and we ate the dates and we fed the animals. The Bahraini woman has played a more extensive role in day-to-day living than some of our neighbors allowed. With men away for several months, sometimes 4 to 5 months, they're diving fishing. The lady could never afford to stay at home. You can see the pictures. These are very old pictures. The woman took care of the children. They were called onto play the role the men provided for their families. They had sometimes to go to the market to sell the produce to feed their family. We didn't have water resources inside each house, so they had to go and wash their clothes. We had sweet spring waters. After the discovery for oil, many women, their role relinquished as the men provider. But many women chose not to stay at home, to work outside home, in the professions such as teaching and nursing, because we had a school since the 1919 and 1920. So in the 1930s, women were working in the professions such as teaching and nursing. The 2 ladies in this picture, one of them is the first teacher in Bahrain in the 1950s. She's called Irensta [phonetic]. And her sister was a teacher in another Jesuit school in Muharraq. It was not easy to commute between Muharraq and Manama because there was no bridge. They're islands. But I don't know how they managed to go between the schools and teach. In 1950s, Bahraini women started the first women association and then was released. The President in 1955, Shaikh Halulu Al Khalifa, that shows woman's involvement in civil society. Shaikh Halulu started this women's society to improve situations for other less fortunate women. They disseminated awareness in the villages. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008. Shaikh Halulu al-Kali [phonetic]. She's still very active. When I go to Bahrain she's always on TV. But in the 1960s, the Bahraini women could, so the Bahraini women were working with the government and governmental jobs since they had the qualifications like teaching. But really, 1960s Bahraini women worked in other professions, such as medical practitioners and they were engineers, bankers, pharmacists, and I think a Bahraini woman has made remarkable progress. Now you see, this picture shows the Bahraini Young Ladies' Association, 1955 it says. Bahraini women made remarkable progress, and this because Sheikha Mai, she's the Minister of Culture. She's a dynamic woman. I am personally very fond of her. She was the Minister of Culture, the second one she's there, Nada Hadafh, she was the Minster of Health for years. And the last one is Fatima Al-Baluchi. She is the Minister of Social Development. And she is the sister of our previous Ambassador, Nasser Al-Baluchi. Now, you can see woman ambassadors, our wonderful Ambassador Nunu. You can see her in the picture. She was assigned to this post in 2008. It is a big deal for us when I say that Sheikha Haya was elected as the president of United Nations General Assembly in 2006, just when I was assigned to this post, so I thought I had a lot to talk about. And the last picture is Sheikha Sabika, His Majesty's wife. She's the head of the Supreme Council for Woman, which was started in 2001 to campaign for woman issues. Next to her, she's our Ambassador to China, BB. In this picture you see the picture below you see our first parliamentarian in 2006, Latifa al-Qouhoud. Women did not achieve great victory in parliament. In 2002, none of them were elected, but the King, just after the election, he appointed 9 woman to that consultative Council. One of them was our Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Nunu. In the upper picture you see one of our consultative Council members, Doctora Aysha. She worked with the Ministry of Education with our parliamentarian, Latifa al-Qouhoud. Yesterday we voted in election at the Embassy. There are 9 woman running for election. Hopefully we have more this year. So Bahraini woman, also they achieved some progress even in Olympics, and this is how the Bahraini, what Bahraini woman wears when she goes on very important social gatherings. I used to see my mother wearing it when she went to wedding parties. And the girls wore, that looks like a head cover. The unmarried Bahraini woman dressed like that until she got married, and she changed to the other one. So the little ones, this is how we -- I did not address -- I wore that when we were celebrating our national day in the schools. That was in the 1970s. But maybe in the 1960s and 1950s the girls wore that. This is one of our first cultural clubs, which was -- actually, it's not the first one. The first one was in 1920 in Muharraq. This is another one, but I think it's wrong. The first cultural club in Bahrain was in 1920. Bahrain was very famous for its literary men and poets. We have a strong literary tradition. Most of the work produced or the knowledge, it's in classical Arabics, works for Qassim Haddad and Abraham. Qassim Haddad, he said "Bahrain is not an island except to whoever sees it from the sea." Maybe the person. The culture, it started, the literary men started majlis, open houses. These open houses were sponsored by prominent citizens, by rich people, by merchants, pearl divers. They invited people to come and sit and talk and discuss and have seminars. It was during the course of the majlis or open houses, people were able to obtain news or to be updated on events, trends in other foreign countries, other Arab countries like Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and other Arab countries. So the Bahrainis before, the period I think it started, the actual period for this start of, or the spread of the majlis open houses was the late part of the 19th century and the early part of the 1920. But in 1920 the first cultural assembly started, or a club. So this is our -- before talking about our Sheikha Isa Cultural Center, I would like to mention that Bahrain, because I talked a little bit about the past, I need to say something about the present. So we have been witnessing a renaissance in literature. Some figures were announced by His Prince Salman, our Crown Prince recently in an event in the Sheikha Isa Cultural Center. This is our national library, or cultural center. It is one of the largest in the Middle East. It combines between cultural center and the library. Usually we have national, but this is a cultural center and a library. So more books have been produced in Bahrain since the launch of the National Action Charter, the package for political reform in 2001, than produced in one century. The Crown Prince announced that 1,650 books were produced the last 9 years, since the start of democracy. Then 1,503 books in one century. This is another cultural center. This is actually the house, one of the majlis, one of the cultural assemblies in the 10 of the 20th century was sponsored by Sheikh Ibrahim Muhammad, the picture that you see on the wall. This is his house. It has turned into a cultural and research center by the Minister of Culture, Sheikha Mai. And I think Bahrain does a great job of showcasing its cultural history. We need to do more, but I think so far we have done a lot of good things. The Museum of Bahrain, the National Museum of Bahrain does an extremely good job in highlighting the most significant aspects of life in Bahrain. When we were poor and after the discovery of oil, it shows a real research history. There are sections for Islam and Bahrain, there are sections for different civilization. You will even see a burial mound with many artifacts inside it, just to show the visitors. A big burial was found in one of the burial mounds, so it is undisciplined. And it doesn't look old. It looks like it is still dazzling. This is another museum. It's an Islamic museum, Beit Al Qur'an. The Kartardras [phonetic] knows more about Beit Al Qur'an because he went there and he saw this Islamic Museum. There in the facility there is a museum, 10 halls. There is a school, there is a mosque, there is a library. And I think it has a good collection of Korans from around, from Muslim countries from China to Spain. The art museum define the nature of the Bahraini people. The culture of Bahrain oppose the traditional people but at the same time it presents the modern picture of Bahrain. The Bedouin culture in Bahrain - -you know, Bahrain is 70% desert. But it's not raining there, when you come you will see the green, but it's 70% desert. The Bedouin culture in Bahrain give rise to men's sword dancing. We call it Ardha, or disciply. It is not just one of the most famous folk dance in Bahrain but it's the Arabian Gulf. You see the King performing the dance, doing the national day. But we have another folk dance that was driven from our contact with Africa. Our ship sailed to Africa for gold. Gold has always been a part of the Bahraini society. There are many gold shops in Bahrain, and we have 21-caret gold and they have been found in the burial mounds 5,000 years earlier. Yahweh folk dance, it's African driven. This is Yahweh, African driven folk dance. And then we have the folk dance for the pearl divers. The pearl divers went in the sea for several months. They had to entertain themselves, so they performed kajali. I'm just trying to make it as simple as possible. There is a lot to say about each dance, like the men's sword dance, it's about the history. It's about -- the movement is very masculine. It's not for fun, even by a woman. The movement is masculine. The songs are about the history, about the national identity. It's very proud. Now, Bahrain is a great destination for cultural activities. Every year, just this month we are organizing our 19th International Music Festival in Bahrain in October. In October, the beginning of October we had education project, because I said that there are many challenges facing Bahrain. Educational project is the platform for educators from around the world to come and find solutions, solutions for educational problems. Bahrain launched it last year. This year, the Deputy Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools participated in education project. Middle East Policy Council participated this year, Harvard University and the previous president of George Washington University. So we are not just trying to tackle the problems of education, but we are also inviting international artists, poets, musicians, to perform this year in the 19th International Music Festival. But in that spring, we also host, we have the Spring of Culture Festival, which is also an international celebration or a celebration for international culture. Bahrain has a long tradition of art and craft. Each craft in Bahrain is associated with a different craft, like the Village of A'ali is associated with pottery makings, and Karbabad. is associated with basket weaving. The village Bani Jamra of stick style weaving. Maybe I should stop. >> Ask any questions. >> If you could just show the pictures. We have also a strong architectural heritage. If you go to the city of Muharraq, Muharraq is the second largest island in Bahrain. It is home to some very residential properties that have historical value and interest. Many of the houses, like our famous musician, his house, was turned into a museum. Our famous journalist, the first journalist in Bahrain who published a newspaper, his house was turned into a museum. And the architecture. These and the one before, the rule of Haran, who ruled Haran in 1863 until 1932, his house is open for the tourists. It also has magnificent ceilings, very beautiful carved walls with a sculptured doors and glass stained windows. Thank you very much. I think -- I'm really sorry for taking more than my time. [ Applause ] >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.