Center Director

Professor Mourad al-Rifi is a Moroccan academic and researcher with a professional career in the fields of culture and joint Arab cultural work. He has held a number of administrative and academic responsibilities within the Kingdom of Morocco, particularly at the Ministry of Culture, where he carried out tasks related to cultural cooperation and joint Arab work. He also played the role of General Coordinator for the events of Oujda, Capital of Arab Culture for 2018, and, during one of the sessions of the Conference of Arab Ministers of Culture, chaired the Standing Committee for Arab Culture as a representative of the Kingdom of Morocco. As part of his career in Arab cultural work, Dr. Mourad al-Rifi headed the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts in Cairo, affiliated with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), before being appointed in October 2024 as Director of the Bureau for the Coordination of Arabization in Rabat, succeeding Professor Abdelfattah al-Hajmari, thereby becoming the Bureau's ninth director since its founding in 1961. Through his management of the Bureau for the Coordination of Arabization, Dr. al-Rifi works to support the efforts of Arab states in the field of Arabization and the standardisation of scientific and cultural terminology, to strengthen cooperation with the language academies and academic institutions, and to keep pace with the developments taking place in the Arabic language, particularly in the fields of digital lexicography, artificial intelligence and modern technologies. During his tenure, the Bureau launched scholarly and cultural activities, including the Bureau's Cultural Salon, which addresses issues of the Arabic language, its lexicographic industry and digital transformations. His career combines academic work, cultural administration and joint Arab work, with a particular interest in issues of Arab culture, Arabization, terminology, heritage, and the development of cooperation mechanisms among the Arab institutions concerned with language and culture.