Ghada Ahmed, the wife of the Egyptian ambassador, leads the Heads of Diplomatic Missions’ Spouses Group, which recently donated 140 books to the National Library at a ceremony headed by library director Syed Gyour Hussain.

The books were donated by members of the groups, originating from their private collections. Several of the books were large coffee table books.

Ms Ahmad said that through such donations, readers will be exposed to different cultures and traditions. About a third of the donation came from her collection.

“The books include a range of topics from literature, art, architecture, religion, politics and other fields. They are in three different languages, namely English, Urdu and Arabic.”

Ms Ahmed said that the National Library was chosen as the recipient of the books because of its importance as the country’s main library; it has on average about 600 visitors daily. It also lends books to other libraries countrywide.

One of the group’s members said that she hoped that in future more books will be collected and new donations made to the library.

“The habit of reading books must be encouraged in our time when we use the internet more and more,” she said.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2019