Thursday 14 / May / 2026
Sohar: Acting in partnership with Sohar University in North Al Batinah Governorate, Ishraq Foundation for Press and Publishing on Thursday organised a symposium titled “Omani identity as a national pillar: Protecting cultural constants in a changing World”.
The symposium was held under the auspices of Sayyid Said bin Sultan Al Busaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth for Sports, and attended by academics, researchers and education experts in the Sultanate of Oman.
The symposium included working papers about various aspects of the national identity and related intellectual, cultural and media transformations. It laid emphasis on the role of education and national institutions in promoting the national identity.
The symposium dealt with developments in the meanings and functions of national identity. It elaborated on the impact of cultural openness on shaping values and behaviour, in addition to the role of digital media and media platforms in influencing collective awareness and cultural identity.
The symposium underscored the importance of educational curricula and institutional initiatives in enhancing national belonging and protecting Omani society’s cultural privacy.
At the conclusion of the symposium, the participants issued a number of recommendations that focused on consolidating the presence of national identity in educational curricula and cultural programmes. They stressed the need to develop a national media discourse that promotes awareness about cultural constants.
The participants called for activating partnership among institutions operating in the fields of education, media and cultural affairs, with the objective of fostering a balanced social awareness.
The recommendations also touched on supporting youth initiatives that promote the concept of ‘national belonging’, notably by making optimum use of digital space to generate a purposeful national content that preserves the Omani identity and keeps pace with modern developments.
