Bahia Shehab

Bahia Shehab
Born	1977
Occupation	Artist, art historian, designer and scholar
Employer	The American University in Cairo
Style	Calligraffiti
Awards	TED Fellowship 100 Women Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture Prince Claus Fund
Website	http://www.aucegypt.edu/fac/bahiashehab-0

Bahia Shehab (1977)^[1] is an Egyptian-Lebanese artist, art historian, designer and scholar of Arabic script.

Career

At the beginning of the Egyptian revolution in January 2011, Shehab spray-painted the word "no" in protest around the streets of Cairo. Shehab, through her research of the word "no" in Islamic culture, discovered that there are thousands of ways to write the word.^[2] With these characters she found she created artistic stencils that represented the current conflict including, "No to a new pharoah".^[2]

Shehab gave a TED Talk in June 2012 titled "A thousand times no" and was awarded a TED fellowship in 2012 and a TED senior fellowship in 2016.^[3] Shehab's artwork has been on display in exhibitions around the world, as well as having been featured in the documentary 'Nefertiti's Daughters'^[4] (2015). Shehab published a book called 'A Thousand Times NO: The Visual History of Lam-Alif" in 2010. Shehab was the first woman to receive the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture alongside eL Seed.^[5]

In 2011 Shehab developed the graphic design program at The American University in Cairo with courses focused on the visual culture of the Arab world. She has taught over fourteen courses on the topic.

In 2016 she served as a judge for the 100 Best Arabic Posters contest, the first contest in the Arab world to recognize poster design as an art form.^[6]

References

Further reading

• "Bahia Shehab: Art As a Tool for Change". Huffington Post. 24 March 2014. Retrieved 8 December 2016.