Egyptian Culture Minister Ines Abdel-Dayem has issued a decree appointing Heba Mahmoud Youssef as the director of the Egyptian Academy of Arts in Rome.

Youssef had been the head of the cultural foreign relations department at the ministry since 2018.

She was previously the head of the touristic guidance department at the Faculty of Tourism, and has acted as the coordinator of the activities and events agenda for the Egypt-France Cultural Year 2019 and as a member of the joint Egyptian-Italian committee for scholarships for the academic year 2019/2020.

She has been chairman of the Permanent Committee for Arab Culture, affiliated with the Arab Organization for Education, Culture and Science (ALESCO), since 2018.

 She holds a doctorate in the History of Art and Islamic Monuments from Sorbonne University in France.

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