ZAHA HADID is no more. She was an architect in the costume of a contemporary artist and won the Pritzker Prize in 2004 for her architectural designs. This prize is equivalent to the Noble Prize in its financial value and fame. The artistic designer was the first woman and the youngest architect to win the prize since its establishment about 25 years ago. She treated her architectural designs as rare artistic pieces. Many traditional architects accused her of being just a paper architect. They said her architectural designs were just ink on paper that could not be put into practice. However, implementation of her designs in various parts of the world has nullified these claims. Whoever sees a distinctive building anywhere in the world will come to realize that the prints of the Iraqi-British architect were behind it. She has designed the Opera House in Guangzhou in China and the Guggenheim and Armitage museums in Lithuania which was the capital of the European culture in 2009. She has also designed the new National Stadium in Japan, the Modern Arts Center in Rome and many other fabulous buildings. We are lucky to have two of Hadid's work in Saudi Arabia. These are: King Abdullah Center for Petroleum Studies and Researches on the Airport Road in Riyadh and the center's railway station for the Riyadh Metro. The two buildings are real pieces of art whether seen from inside or outside. Zaha Hadid was born in Baghdad in 1950. She migrated to Britain in 1977, three years before the outbreak of the devastating war with Iran which continued for eight years. Many people were killed in this war either by bullets or hunger. Many others were displaced. If Zaha had stayed there, she would not have been more than an elementary school teacher. If she had outlived the Iraq-Iran war, Zaha would not have escaped from the war to liberate Kuwait in 1991 or the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. If she had outlived these wars, she might have become a captive in the hands of Daesh if she was not killed or stoned to death. The important question here is: how many gifted women in Iraq were not able to escape fighting in this crazy and chaotic country? Iraq goes out of a war just to enter into another. No sooner did Iraq depose a dictator it fell into the hands of gangs of death and destruction. How many Zaha Hadid have hesitated to go out of Iraq or other Arab countries? On the other hand, Audrey Azoulay, a French woman of Moroccan origin, has been appointed minister of culture and communications in the French government. She was preceded in this post by Najat Falou and Mariam Al-Khamri, women also of Moroccan origin. If these three women had stayed in Morocco, they would not have gotten any important jobs except to become nannies or a kindergarten teacher in the best case scenario. Why the Arab world does not trust women? Why is it not ready to give women the opportunity to excel, accomplish and create freely without tight censorship and suspicions? I am well aware that there are a lot of Arab women who are distinguished and inspiring. They have the ability to surprise us with their exceptional powers and creativity. Only let these women fly with their ideas on two wings of dream. Were the designs of Zaha Hadid just dreams, which many architects thought they were, they would never have been realized? These designs have now become the facade of the new world.
