MUSCAT: The Kuwaiti Al Arabi magazine, one of the most famous cultural publications, in the Arab world featured an Omani girl reading a Quran on its cover in its June 1971 issue. Fifty years later, the publication found Mahfuzah and gifted her the June 1971 issue. A picture or Mahfuzah holding the Al Arabi magazine has now gone viral on social media.

In the feature, Mahfuzah bint Ahmed Al Rawahi spoke of the great transformations that the Sultanate of Oman has witnessed and is still witnessing. Al-Arabi magazine in its June 1971 issue covered ~ “The Empty Quarter is no longer empty’ and  ‘4 Omani cities began to wake up after a deep sleep’.

The magazine spoke about the conditions of the Omani citizen fifty years ago, highlighting the lesser number of hospitals, schools and farms. It said, “Good people go and become, but the hands of time are in a place that do not move… as if they had stopped four generations ago.”

The magazine also talked about the high prices that the Sultanate was witnessing at that time — an orange was 20 fils, 90 fils for a kilo of onions, and 5 fils for a small lemon, — which people could not buy.