APPRECIATIVE university students have acknowledged the commitment and spirit of one of their beloved inspirational tutors by compiling, producing and dedicating a book and video recording in her memory.
The late assistant professor Dr Samia Abdulrazak Engineer passed away last July at the age of 68 after battling multiple sclerosis ... but her memory will live on forever in the hearts and minds of her family, friends, colleagues and the teenagers she taught at the University of Bahrain.
GulfWeekly first highlighted Bahraini artist and teacher back in 2010 expressing her hopes to inspire young women into believing in themselves and appreciating their role as the ‘source of life’. Although a teacher of art for more than 40 years and a respected artist in her own right, the Riffa resident only staged her first solo exhibition in 2006.
Samia also portrayed her philosophy with poetry produced on her art and hoped one day to publish a collection of her written work.
Samples of that collection, alongside her art pieces, can now be found in a stunning book, simply entitled Samia Engineer in her actual Arabic signature form.
It was conceptualised by the university’s BA Art and Design students, alongside Samia’s former colleague and dear friend Dr Sama’a Al Hashimi, an assistant professor of graphic design and digital media, to honour her creatively.
“Samia was my colleague, my soul mate, my best friend and my partner in co-founding the BA in Art and Design programme at the University of Bahrain,” she said.
They worked together in preparing the curriculum and all the required documentation from 2009 until the programme was approved and established in 2015. “This involved working together on a daily basis - day and night, and many times during the late hours to write course descriptions and course outlines, presenting the syllabus and proposal as well as the feasibility study to one committee after another for six years until our dream came true and our programme was born,” explained Sama’a who lives in Amwaj Islands.
“I never had the chance to convey to her how much love, respect, admiration and gratitude I feel towards her. These feelings within me were, and are still, way beyond what I could express in words and are also more than what my heart can bear or contain.
“I decided to transfer and distribute this ‘overload of love’ that I feel towards her among the hearts of my students and I never stopped talking about her and about all the efforts and care that she has put into their programme until it came into existence.”
The students also wanted to express their love and gratitude and offered ‘wholehearted willingness and a desire’ to collaborate with Sama’a in producing a book of tribute accompanied by a video documentary of Samia’s life.
Samia had been passionate about art from as long as she could remember. Her earliest memory was watching her uncle painting her cousin holding a watermelon in her grandfather’s home in Manama where she grew up.
She shared her story with GulfWeekly before an exhibition was unveiled at The Courtyard Gallery in Hamala featuring a collection entitled ‘Invisible Messages’ which highlighted her thoughts about womanhood.
In 1970, she started following her artistic dreams by working for a diploma in art education at the University of Bahrain before taking up a teaching post in a school in Manama. Shortly afterwards, she won a scholarship to attend a ceramic and textile painting course in the English city of Bristol before teaching in a high school and at a teachers’ training centre.
In 1981, she returned to Bristol to pursue her Master’s degree and the journey went full circle in 1984 when she was appointed to teach at Bahrain University. In 1988, due to her outstanding work, she was offered the opportunity by the government to continue her studies and to take up a PhD in the US, where she lived until 1992. She later returned to the kingdom and resumed her university role.
She told GulfWeekly that working with students kept her alert - especially with the ‘young, current generation’.
She was married to Mohammed Saleh and her daughter, Fatima, is an interior designer living in London.
Around 22 students worked diligently for five months to complete the 100-page nostalgic memoir featuring Samia’s poetry and art work, plus additional comments from her family.
“The book includes almost 100 pages of her artwork as well as a collection of reports and comments about them, some of her poems, interviews with her family members, relatives and friends, as well as artists and poets who have known her over the years,” added Sama’a.
“Her art really reflected her personality and how transparent she was. They conveyed the challenges that women in our society face and the way they are perceived.
“The daring topics she tackled and presented through her art may not have been readily accepted by some people but she aimed to artistically empower women and encourage them to appreciate their role as the ‘source of life’.
“The book also includes all the obituaries that were written about her by all the people who loved her. There is also a QR code which can be scanned by the reader in order to watch a video documentary which the students filmed and produced about her.”
The documentary was produced under the supervision of Wasan Madan, a former student and now a colleague of Sama’a in the department.
Khalid Ahmed Alammadi, 38, the director of Admission and Graduation Affairs at the University, is also studying in the programme and was involved in helping to make the book.
He contributed in parts of the layout design and the production along with his peers, including Hassan Ali and Hussain Salman. Many fellow students helped in collecting useful data and interviewing relatives and friends.
“I wanted to do this book for Samia because she was a distinguished artist as well as the co-founder of the programme in which I am currently an enrolled student. For that, I am forever grateful,” said Khalid, who lives in Riffa.
“She resembled a combination of talents which is very unique. She was an artist, a poet, an academic teacher and a loving mother.
“She has a bold and daring drawing style which differentiates her art from others, which caused some people to criticise the way she expressed herself and her opinions.
“I wanted people to have a clear vision of Samia’s personality, even though they may not have met her before, and also to have a deeper understanding of her artwork and her achievements.
“I think this book will always keep Samia with us and will always remind us and others of her.”
Fellow student Jumana AlQassab, 23, from Tubli, was the content creator of the book. She said: “I worked on it to express my gratitude as a way to thank her and show my appreciation.
“She was a bright, hardworking woman with strong beliefs in her principles and full commitment to her work. We hope our work succeeds in representing who she really was.”
As of last month, only one sample copy of the book was printed and the students and staff members are now working on finding the right channels and procedures to support the publication of more copies and how best to distribute it.
They are also planning on organising an exhibition of her work, perhaps some time in December to give Fatima a chance to attend. The exhibition will commemorate her passing and honour her artistic, cultural and academic efforts.
“We hope to distribute the book and present the documentary during the opening ceremony of the exhibition,” added Sama’a. “I would like to dedicate this book to her soul and to her bereaved daughter, Fatima, and her husband, Mohammed.
“I would like the world to know her, remember her and appreciate her by perceiving her achievements and knowing about her unforgettable unique personality through the eyes and hearts of those who loved her, including me.
“Although she is not around to see the first batch of the Art and Design programme graduate and to realise the fulfilment of her dream, the world is around to see the undying outcome of her perpetual efforts.
“I just wanted, through this book and through the many achievements that this programme and its students have attained, to show how her efforts are great enough to remain and have an eternal and everlasting influence on the world.”
