Nashwa Al Ruwaini nominated for Emirates Woman of the Year Award for culture

Nashwa, one of four nominees in this category is up against Nadine Kanso the Lebanese born jewelry designer, Sunny Rahbar the Dubai based Curator and Maisa Al Qassimi the UAE media artist and photographer. The other categories for this award are in lifestyle, charity, sports and business.

Speaking about the award Nashwa says, "I am honored to be considered for such an award and am very pleased to be in this category with other such outstanding people. Culture is a major part of all our lives and especially here in the UAE, my team and I work so hard to highlight and present to people from all over the world the beauty of this country."

The winners will be awarded their awards based on reader votes which will remain open until March 2008 with the award being announced shortly after this. The five patrons of the EW of the Year Awards are Zenny Hirji, philanthropist and fundraiser; Fatima Al Mazouri Gobash, owner of S*uce women's clothing store; Patricia Millns, Artist, and Raja Al-Gurg, President of the Dubai and UAE Business Women Council and Managing Director of the Easa Saleh Al-Gurg Group.

Nashwa is already a household name in the Middle East starting her career in Qatar on the radio and quickly moving into television. She worked with the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) for a number of years in London launching landmark television shows many of which touch on controversial issues surrounding the Middle East. She later moved to Cairo to head up MBC's Cario office and then established her own production company Pyramedia which has been fully functional since 1998 with offices now in London, Cairo, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and New York. Her production company is now one of the largest in the region producing some of the highest rated TV shows including the Million's Poet and Prince of Poets TV competitions on Abu Dhabi TV. In addition to productions Pyramedia also extends to castings for Arab actors in international productions which have included casting Ghassan Massoud in Ridley Scott's 'Kingdom of Heaven' film.

Within the realm of film Nashwa also is Executive Director of the Middle East International Film Festival which had its inaugural festival in October 2007 hosted by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi. The Festival was a massive success attracting the crème de la crème of the film industry to Abu Dhabi such as Producers Harvey Weinstein, and Paul Haggis.

Aside from Nashwa's busy business life she still manages to find time to present her self-titled talk show on Dubai TV where she discusses various topics surrounding the Arab World such as women, religion and society. Related to her show is the Nashwa Foundation a charity established by Nashwa to help disadvantaged women and children.