Photos by Abdul Basit © The Peninsula
The world’s biggest debating championship began in Doha yesterday with the participation of more than 100 teams from 51 countries.
The fifth International Universities Debating Championship organised by QatarDebate, a member of Qatar Foundation (QF) is being held under the patronage of
H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, the Vice-Chairman and CEO of QF.
The championship will be held under the slogan ‘Dialogue, Debate, and Diplomacy’ aiming at contributing towards spreading the art of debate and the cultural exchange of participants.
“The championship is an opportunity to learn and practice the Arabic language, which is fast becoming a language of research, literature and creativity,” said Dr Hayat Maarafi Executive Director, QatarDebate, addressing the opening ceremony of the championship at the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC).
She also highlighted the benefits of debating such as learning critical thinking and well-reasoned communication.
Around 600 people including debaters, judges, trainers and others are participating in the five-day championship. Among the debating teams, 15 are native Arabic-speakers and 37 are non-Arabic speakers.
“Debating in Arabic is challenging, we love the challenge and we hope to do the best,” Noor Al Dhulaimi, spokesperson of the team from the University of Utah in the US told The Peninsula.
She and her teammates doing a major in Middle East studies were inspired by that to take part in the championship.
“We were preparing for the championship since November. It is important to know the art of convincing others and being excepting others ideas, debating in a way that is civil,” said Noor, who is a native of Iraq and familiar with the Arabic language.
This year, six teams are participating from Qatar, including two from Community College of Qatar, two from the Qatar University, one from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar(CMU-Q) and one representing the Police Academy.
“We are happy to be the first team to participate from a QF partner university. We have paved the path for others to participate in the debate championship in the future,” said Rafat Abutarbush, team leader of CMU-Q.
A trial round involving all the teams participating in the championship without recording any scores took place following the opening ceremony yesterday. The CMU-Q team won the trial debate they had with a team from Lebanon.
“The training and practising sessions were exhausting but provided us a good experience. We are here to give our best,” said Rafat.
Dr Hafsat Abiola, President of Women African Initiative and a Nigerian civil rights activist, who is visiting Qatar for Empower Conference hosted by Education Above All, visited the championship.
She delivered an inspirational speech to students, highlighting the challenges she and her family had to face during their political struggles trying to improve the lives of fellow Nigerians. She stressed the important role women must play by actively participating in all walks of life to uplift a country out of poverty.
Preliminary round one and two of the championship were held yesterday, while round three to five will be held today.
