Prof. Salwa Rashad, Dean of the Faculty of Al-Alsun at Ain Shams University, received Dr. Raffaele Pentangelo, the Cultural Attaché and Acting Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo, as part of the launch of the 24th edition of the Italian Language Week in the World, under the theme: "Italian and Books: The World Between the Lines," with the presence of Professor Dr. Dalia Gamal, Head of the Italian Language Department.

In her speech, Prof. Salwa Rashad emphasized that this launch at the Faculty of Al-Alsun at Ain Shams University, which houses the oldest Italian Language Department in Egypt and the Arab world, with a history tied to the faculty’s establishment in the 1950s, is the result of effective cooperation between the Faculty of Al-Alsun and the Italian Embassy in Cairo. She stressed the importance of broadening horizons to reflect the depth of Egyptian-Italian relations, not only in language and culture but in various fields.

Dr. Raffaele Pentangelo, Cultural Attaché and Acting Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo, highlighted the importance of returning to reading books in a world dominated by digital media, where smartphones have replaced paper books. He pointed out that Egypt is a model in appreciating books, as evidenced by the creation of the Library of Alexandria and the provision of a conducive environment for authoring books in various fields. Similarly, in Italy, books played a crucial role, especially in combating illiteracy in the late 19th century. The unification of school textbooks contributed to eradicating illiteracy and spreading a unified Italian language across the regions of Italy, which had previously been fragmented and lacking linguistic unity.

After his speech, Dr. Pentangelo honored Ayah Mostafa, a fourth-year student in the department, for winning the "Design a Cover for Your Favorite Book" competition. He presented her with a collection of valuable books from the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo.

Prof. Dalia Gamal, Head of the Italian Language Department, gave an overview of the department's rich history and the efforts of its professors over the past seventy years, as it is the first department of Italian studies in Egypt. She also thanked the professors of the Arabic Language Department and praised their ongoing collaboration with the Italian Language Department.

The event then moved to the first of two conference sessions, chaired by Prof. Fawzy Essa, Professor of Literature in the department. The session featured research contributions, with two presentations on Italian literature. Dr. Basma Ezzat, a lecturer in the department, spoke about psychological fragility in the novel The Fragile Age by Donatella Di Pietrantonio, highlighting that fragility is not limited to childhood but extends to all stages of human life. Dr. Mina Shahat, a language instructor at the Faculty of Al-Alsun, Fayoum University, compared the suffering of women during wartime in a novel by Italian writer Alberto Moravia and one by Egyptian writer Mohamed El-Basati.

The second presentation was by Prof. Sayed Mohamed Sayed Kotb, Emeritus Professor of Criticism in the Arabic Language Department, who shared his insights on the multiplicity of voices in the latest translations by three young translators, who are also teaching assistants in the Italian Language Department: Menna Essam, Shaimaa El-Sayed, and Islam Fawzy. Additionally, the Italian-Egyptian writer and thinker Omar Farid Riccardo, whose father is from Sohag and mother from Milan, contributed his perspective. Having lived in Egypt, he witnessed the era of Italian speakers in Cairo and Alexandria, whose language retained its authenticity, unlike the evolving Italian spoken in Italy itself.