The Aswan Women’s Film Festival will honour Egyptian actress Mona Zaki in its second edition, set to take place in February.

Zaki, 41, is an award-winning actress who has starred in over 30 Egyptian films since the early 1990s. Last year, she won the Murex D'Or award for her role in the Ramadan television series Afrah El-Quba.

She also won awards from the Damascus Film Festival, the Alexandria International Film Festival, the Cairo National Film Festival for Arab Cinema, as well as the Paris Biennial for Arab Cinema.

The festival’s secretary-general Amira Atef has said that the festival has chosen to honour Zaki for her talent and extensive contributions to cinema since the start of her career, according to a report by Al-Ahram Arabic new website.

“Zaki has tackled women’s issues in many of her films, and portrayed the struggles of women of different backgrounds in films including An El-Eshq Wel Hawa (2006), Ehky Ya Shahrazad (2009), Taimour We Shafika (2007), Sahar El-Layaly (2003), Dam El-Ghazal (2005), and Edhak El-Soura Tetlaa Helwa (1998),” Atef said.

Zaki has thanked the festival for the honorary award, saying that it holds particularly special value coming from an Egyptian festival dedicated to women, especially in an edition where the guest of honour is iconic Algerian activist Djamila Bouhired.

In its first edition last year, the festival honoured actress Naglaa Fathy.

The Aswan Women’s Film Festival showcases local and international films with women as lead actresses, directors, or that focus on women's issues.

The festival is headed by actress Elham Shahin and is organised by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with the National Assembly for Women.

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