Grand Mosque Expands Accessibility for Worshippers With Disabilities
The General Authority for the Care of the Two Holy Mosques has announced a set of upgrades at the Grand Mosque in Makkah aimed at improving access for worshippers with disabilities. The initiative includes new ramps, wheelchair lanes, and elevators designed for individuals with mobility challenges. Both manual and electric wheelchairs are being provided free of charge to support movement across the site.
For worshippers with visual impairments, Qurans printed in Braille have been made available, along with navigational support in the form of guidance symbols and sensory pathways. Dedicated restrooms and prayer areas have also been adapted to meet a wider range of physical needs, incorporating updated technologies and tools such as hearing aids.
Additional improvements include clear signage, marked pathways, directional guides, and informational stickers to help worshippers locate accessible services. The upgrades are part of an ongoing effort to ensure the Grand Mosque remains inclusive and comfortable for all visitors.
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CairoScene
06-08-2025
- CairoScene
Grand Mosque Expands Accessibility for Worshippers With Disabilities
The Grand Mosque in Makkah has introduced expanded accessibility measures, enhancing mobility and comfort for worshippers with physical, visual, or auditory impairments. The General Authority for the Care of the Two Holy Mosques has announced a set of upgrades at the Grand Mosque in Makkah aimed at improving access for worshippers with disabilities. The initiative includes new ramps, wheelchair lanes, and elevators designed for individuals with mobility challenges. Both manual and electric wheelchairs are being provided free of charge to support movement across the site. For worshippers with visual impairments, Qurans printed in Braille have been made available, along with navigational support in the form of guidance symbols and sensory pathways. Dedicated restrooms and prayer areas have also been adapted to meet a wider range of physical needs, incorporating updated technologies and tools such as hearing aids. Additional improvements include clear signage, marked pathways, directional guides, and informational stickers to help worshippers locate accessible services. The upgrades are part of an ongoing effort to ensure the Grand Mosque remains inclusive and comfortable for all visitors.
Watani
07-07-2025
- Watani
St Didymus the Blind re-emerges from the depth of history
'Didymus the Blind (c.313 – 398) warrants recognition and commemoration because, even though he lost his eyesight at an early age, he was able to enlighten the minds generations by his thought and knowledge.' These words belong to Egyptian sculptor Girgis al-Gawly, professor of sculpture at Minya University, who recently sculpted a statue of St Didymus the Blind (313 – 398). Watani talked to Dr Gawly about the statue. 'This statue,' Dr Gawly noted, 'serves as an artistic and humane honour for a unique figure in the history of human and Christian thought. St Didymus was a man who lived during a time when blinds were doomed to darkness and need, yet he was able to overcame his disability and the darkness that engulfed him, to lead generations upon generations to the light of knowledge.' Cultural blend Dr Gawly said that the statue he sculpted of St Didymus features lines of a classical character that lived in Egypt during Greco-Roman times. The sculpture follows the distinctive Alexandrian style that was the outcome of intertwined Pharaonic, Hellenistic, Roman, and Christian Coptic art. The statue, he said, emulates the amazing cultural blend that enveloped Egypt throughout these eras that were rich in knowledge, art, and spirituality. The two-metre-high Didymus statue is made of Aswan clay, a material sourced out of Egyptian soil. Dr Gawly said that the work depicts St Didymus as a man of determination and courage, reflecting his amazing character that transcended visual impairment to revolutionise the way blind people were taught reading and writing through raised relief letters, a method that paralleled the Braille concept but predated it by some 15 centuries. Dr Gawly sculpted Didymus standing tall, his eyes blindfolded and his hands holding a wooden tablet, the means through which he read and wrote. Didymus the Seer The Coptic Orthodox Church commemorates St Didymus the Blind on 13 June as a writer, ascetic, theologian, and polymath. The synaxarium describes him as 'a wonderful model of holy perseverance and discipline who went on to become the Dean of the Catechetical School of Alexandria. 'He was born in Alexandria in 313AD and was named Didymus which is Greek for Thomas. When only four, he contracted a disease that led to loss of his sight. He never went to school because he was blind, but his great love for knowledge led him to overcome that obstacle by learning the alphabet through running his fingers over carved wooden letters. That was 15 centuries before the Braille system was used.' Didymus learned language and grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, logic, theology, arithmetic and music, excelling in them to the point of debating scholars. The fame of his knowledge became well known everywhere. St Jerome called him 'Didymus the Seer'. In 346, Pope Athanasius entrusted to Didymus the management of the Theological School of Alexandria which flourished under him and grew to attract some of the great learned men of the time, including Palladius, Rufinus and Jerome. St Jerome said that Didymus bore the characteristics of an apostolic person; Rufinus called him a prophet; and Sozomin the historian said that the way Didymus defended the teachings of the Council of Nicaea against the Arians was incomparable. Didymus was a pious ascetic who prayed for the Christians persecuted by Julian the Infidel. He saw in a vision that Julian was killed in war and it was fulfilled on the exact day and hour. St Anthony visited him in his cell; they prayed together and talked about the Holy Scriptures. When he saw him sorrowful for the loss of his vision, the father of all monks told him: 'How can you be sorrowful for losing something shared with the least of animals and not rejoice in that God has given you a spiritual vision which He does not grant except to those whom He loves? He gave you eyes with which you see spiritual things and perceive the mysteries of God Himself.' Didymus was greatly comforted by these words. St Didymus wrote many books in theology, dogma, and exegesis on both testaments of the Bible. He departed the world in peace in 398. He had lived 85 years, 52 of them as Dean of the Theological School of Alexandria. He was a contemporary of four Coptic patriarchs: Pope Athanasius the Apostolic, Pope Peter II, Pope Timothy I, and Pope Theophilus. When Pope Shenouda III (Patriarch in 1971 – 2012) inaugurated the Institute for Coptic Church Cantors, many of whom had been traditionally chosen from among the blind but the tradition no longer holds, he named it St Didymus Institute in honour of this great theologian and saint. Comments comments Tags: Didymus the BlindMichael Girgissculptor Girgis Al-Gawly
Egypt Independent
03-06-2025
- Egypt Independent
Dutch government collapses as Wilders' far-right party leaves coalition
CNN — The far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) is leaving the Netherlands' government over its policy for asylum-seekers, its leader Geert Wilders said on Tuesday, toppling the governing coalition. 'I signed up for the strictest asylum policy, not for the downfall of the Netherlands,' Wilders told reporters Tuesday morning. 'And our responsibility for this cabinet therefore ends here.' Wilders' decision to withdraw support for the most right-leaning government in Dutch history has plunged the country's politics into chaos. It leaves the government, led by Prime Minister Dick Schoof, with just 51 out of 150 seats in parliament. Prime Minister Dick Schoof called the decision 'unnecessary and irresponsible.' But speaking with reporters after a Tuesday afternoon cabinet meeting, he offered few details on his conversations with Wilders. He said that without the PVV's support, it was impossible for the government to carry on, and that he would remain in office leading a caretaker government until a new coalition takes over. Opposition leaders have called for immediate elections. Polls suggest that, were elections to be held today, the PVV would lose seats but remain the largest party, just ahead of the center-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. But that's no guarantee that it would be able to enter a new government. Dutch politics features a constellation of parties, none of which has ever been able to command a majority of Dutch votes. Polls suggest that both center-right and center-left parties would gain from new elections. Wilders' PVV was the clear winner of a November 2023 election. But a coalition accord struck after months of haggling dictated that, while his party would join the government, he would remain on the sidelines, in parliament. Wilders has a long history of anti-Islam and anti-immigrant rhetoric, He was convicted of discrimination after insulting Moroccan immigrants at a 2014 campaign rally, and his party calls for 'no Islamic schools, Qurans, and mosques.' Wilders last week held a rare, formal press conference to present the government with an ultimatum for hardening the country's asylum policy – despite the fact that the minister for asylum and migration is a member of his own party. 'The PVV promised voters the strictest asylum policy ever, aiming to make it the strictest in all of Europe,' Wilders said Tuesday. 'We proposed a plan to close the borders to asylum seekers, to stop them, to send them away. To stop building asylum-seeker centers, to close them.' But the coalition, he said, refused his proposals. 'I could do nothing other than say that we are now withdrawing our support for this cabinet.'
