An Arabic-to-English translator from Wales has won the 2024 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.
The annual £3,000 ($3,800) award was given to Katharine Halls for her translation of a memoir by Egyptian journalist and writer Ahmed Naji, titled Rotten Evidence and published by McSweeney’s.
Halls described winning the prize as a “wonderful honour”, but said it was “a strange and difficult time to imagine celebrating anything”.
She explained: “This past month has brought us joy and relief at the sight of former detainees walking free from prisons across Syria, where they have spent years in conditions of indescribable cruelty which so many others did not survive.
In her statement, Halls also mentioned Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who Naji dedicated a chapter in the book to. El-Fattah was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison in 2019 for allegedly spreading false news online and has yet to be released despite the completion of his sentence.
“It is impossible to forget, in these times of resurgent fascism, that writing about and against prison will always be a revolutionary act,” Halls added. “Ahmed Naji is a particularly brave, witty, and uncompromising writer, and I hope this accolade will encourage many more readers to pick up his excellent, indeed revolutionary, book.”
One of the judges, editor for the Times Literary Supplement Michael Caines, praised the work, calling it “scathing, humorous, compelling”. Another judge, literary translator Nariman Youssef, said Halls' work helped showcase the nuances of Naji’s voice.
“Halls seamlessly navigates culturally specific idioms and prison slang,” Youssef said. “Her bold choice to offer transliterations or literal translations of terms or phrases that might seem, at first glance, untranslatable – 'truth is a mango’, ‘shambara’ – is justified time and again by the deft elucidations that she weaves into the text with inimitable simplicity.”
Naji, the author of Rotten Evidence, is a writer, journalist and documentary filmmaker. In 2016, he was arrested and served almost 300 days in prison for “violating public modesty” with the content of his novel The Use of Life. After being released and moving to the US in 2019, Naji wrote about his experience during that time, charting the journey through the courts and prison systems in contrast to his childhood experiences as the son of a leading figure in the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Halls has previously been honoured for her translations. In 2021, she was awarded the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant to translate Egyptian writer Haytham El-Wardany’s short story collection Things That Can’t Be Fixed. She also won the 2017 Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation along with Adam Talib on Saudi novelist Raja'a Alem’s The Dove’s Necklace.
Her translation of Naji’s prison memoir was also shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir and Autobiography in the US. This year's shortlist included three novels, a graphic memoir and a biographical detective story.
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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
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Barcelona v Liverpool, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE).
Second leg
Liverpool v Barcelona, Tuesday, May 7, 11pm
Games on BeIN Sports
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
How to help
Donate towards food and a flight by transferring money to this registered charity's account.
Account name: Dar Al Ber Society
Account Number: 11 530 734
IBAN: AE 9805 000 000 000 11 530 734
Bank Name: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
To ensure that your contribution reaches these people, please send the copy of deposit/transfer receipt to: juhi.khan@daralber.ae
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
MATCH DETAILS
Barcelona 0
Slavia Prague 0
OPINIONS ON PALESTINE & ISRAEL
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
