The Egyptian Parliament approved Inas Abdel Dayem as the new culture minister, succeeding Helmy El Namnam as part of the limited ministerial reshuffle that was announced on Sunday.
Abdel Dayem is the current president of the Cairo Opera House and the president of the Arab Music Academy.
Born on 28 July 1960, the internationally recognised flautist began her career as a student of the Cairo Conservatoire, then received her bachelor’s degree in 1982, after which she earned her master’s in France and completed a PhD in Flute Performing from the École Normale de Musique de Paris in 1989.
Abdel Dayem has held several positions: she was appointed as the head of the Wind and Percussion Department of Cairo Conservatoire then dean of the Cairo Conservatoire from 2004-2010, and vice president of the Arts Academy from 2009-2012.
She joined the Cairo Symphony Orchestra of the Cairo Opera House as a flute soloist then she was appointed Director of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra from 2003-2012.
Abdel Dayem has performed many concerts, representing Egypt in several European and Arab countries, including concerts in several regions of France, as well as a number of concerts with the UNESCO International Orchestra in Paris and solo concerts with the Cairo Conservatoire Orchestra.
She has received numerous awards and certificates throughout her career, including first prize from the Union of the Music Institutes in France, Certificate of Merit at the Kobe International Flute Competition in Japan, as well as the award for Best Performer for Arts at a South Korea festival, according to the Women and Memory Forum.
She was the first woman to participate in l’Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée in Marseilles, France.
In 1999, she established a class at the Egyptian Opera House to teach flute playing to children to develop their talents. She also participated in the preparation of educational curricula in Egypt and some Arab countries, and is the technical adviser to the “Al Noor & Aml” Orchestra, an Egyptian orchestra whose members are blind.
