Altaf Al Sabah’s approach to cultural advocacy focuses on preservation of cultural heritage, craft traditions, and supporting women’s studies.
Cultural Preservation
As co-founder of the Sadu Project in 1979, Altaf Salem Al Sabah has made a lasting contribution to Kuwait’s cultural landscape. Today, she is the honorary president and patron of The Sadu Weaving Craft Cooperative Society, established in 1991 to safeguard weavers’ and artisans’ age-old skills, techniques, and design patterns. The cooperative society’s mission is to assure the development and continuity of sadu weaving as a contemporary form of creative artistic expression and cultural identity. Thanks to her and her team’s work, sadu is now recognized officially in Kuwait’s government school curriculums, to be taught for generations to come.
Ministry of Education at the Sadu House
Sadu House, Kuwait. 2019.
Women’s Studies
In 2017, Altaf Al Sabah endowed a chair in the Department of Women and Societal Development Studies at her alma mater, the American University of Beirut (AUB) - in honor of the late Sheikha Lulwa Nasser M. Al Sabah and Sheikha Shaikha Ali S. Al Sabah. Entitled the Altaf S. Al-Sabah Visiting Chair in Women and Societal Development Studies, this position guides the university in their commitment to promoting collaborative research and exchange programs that support in women’s studies initiatives. The department works towards empowering and enabling women in the region, promoting excellence in the fields of education, science, and development, as well as building and supporting a network of scholars, policy-makers, governmental actors, and community partners.
Teaching
Teaching Introduction to Anthropology at Kuwait University was formative to her personal and professional growth. Working closely with first- and second-year students in the 70’s, as a young lecturer herself, the experience helped to develop new communicative teaching skills that were stimulated by encouraging group exchanges, collaboration, debate, and field research, rather than relying solely on lectures and exams. Says Altaf Al Sabah,
“This short period of teaching opened my eyes to the lack of awareness to Kuwait’s material culture and the significant role it plays in sound social development. I realized then that serious effort had to be made to bring youth closer to their roots and to the wisdom of the past. As a young person myself that had spent almost all of my early years abroad, I too needed to further appreciate and acknowledge my own cultural heritage. Finding this gap both within myself and my students led me towards active conservation work.
I would say that teaching inspired me to dedicate my career to preserving and promoting Kuwait’s material culture, and in particular, its colorful textile heritage and craft traditions.”
Advocacy | Books | About | Collection | Contact