The International Office at Cyprus International University organized “1001 Arabian Nights” by ME students.

The International Office at Cyprus International University gave students from the Middle East the chance to share their cultures with the rest of the student body at an event entitled “1001 Arabian Nights”. The event was well attended particularly by Middle Eastern students as well as other students from CIU and from universities elsewhere in Cyprus.

Activities included a presentation of food and drinks from traditional Middle Eastern cuisine, oriental dance shows, and live music shows with traditional/ethnic music instruments. The students had a joyful time during the oriental dance show by the Turkish Cypriot oriental dancer Özlem Sultan, and the traditional dance show by Middle Eastern students.

Speaking about the evening, Vice Rector of CIU Prof. Halil Nadiri said, “Universities should consider the social and intellectual development of students to be just as significant aspects of student life as education, and research and development. The idea behind this event was to provide our Middle Eastern students an opportunity to share their cultures with academicians and with students from other countries while having a fun-filled time. We will continue organizing evenings like this one in the future.  ‘African Night’, ‘Asian Night’, ‘CIS Night’, ‘Cyprus Night’, are all themes for events to follow, as well as events focusing on regions of Turkey.

Prof Nadiri continued, “One of the most important principles in the modern philosophy of education is that students specialize in a given subject while accumulating information in other topics as well. Yet, the most critical point about educating students to become competitive individuals is enabling students to develop themselves intellectually, to get to know different cultures, to adapt themselves to different cultures, and to become citizens of the globe. In attaining these ends such cultural events are of utmost significance. At CIU we aim at contributing to our students’ development not only in matters of education, and sports, but also in cultural and social matters”.

Speaking of the event, CIU student Mohammed Qashoo from Palestine said, “this evening we presented our culture and our local dance to fellow students from other countries. We hope that such events can be organized more frequently in the future”.

[Source]