Wijdan Ali is the ex-wife of Prince 'Ali bin Naif of Jordan.
17 Facts About Wijdan Ali
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Wijdan Ali is best known for her efforts to revive the traditions of Islamic art and her abstract paintings and for her work as an art historian.
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Wijdan Ali was born Sharifa Wijdan bint Fawwaz in Baghdad on 29 August 1939 into a noble family and was raised in Jordan.
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Wijdan Ali was the daughter of Sharif Fawwaz Muhana, an architect, and his wife, Sharifa Nafi'a bint Jamil Ali.
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Wijdan Ali was the first woman to enter the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jordan and the first woman delegate to represent Jordan at United Nations meetings and the first female diplomat at the United Nations General Assembly.
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Wijdan Ali then began to study art formally with the Jordanian artists Muhanna Al-Dura and Armando Bruno.
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Wijdan Ali is both a contemporary painter and art historian.
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Wijdan Ali's art explores themes of universal tragedy, especially dramatic events in Arab history, such as the Karbala series, which explores the tragedy that occurred in seventh century Karbala, when the Prophet Mohammed's grandson Hussein was martyred.
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Wijdan Ali uses the motif of Islamic calligraphy as a graphic form, which was itself a revival of a traditional art form.
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Wijdan Ali's writing explores the rise and fall of an Islamic aesthetic in Islamic art and the dilution of centuries-long traditions, with the arrival of colonialism in North Africa and the Middle East.
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Wijdan Ali is founder of the Royal Society of Fine Arts and of the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts.
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Wijdan Ali is founder and dean of the newly established Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Jordan.
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Wijdan Ali is a patron of the arts and has curated a number of exhibitions of Islamic art.
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Wijdan Ali has participated in the cross cultural cooperation " the Dance of Visions" in Gothenburg Sweden, invited by the Swedish artist Ragnhild Lunden.
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Wijdan Ali's best known art works are a series of shimmering desert-scapes made during the 1980s.
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Wijdan Ali is a highly respected historian of Islamic art, and has authored, edited and contributed to a number of books, including several devoted to female artists in the Islamic world.
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Wijdan Ali is the daughter of Sharif Fawwaz Muhana, an architect, and Sharifa Nafi'a bint Jamil Ali.