Waqt Al Farah
Aroub’s television career began in 1993. The live children’s programme Waqt Al Farah became a significant part of that work.
Her own YouTube channel · Waqt Al FarahWatch Waqt Al Farah on YouTube · Jordan TV ArchiveThe earlier chapters · Aroub Soubh
A life beyond the page.
Broadcasting, writing and public life are part of Aroub’s story. Here, the archive has its own place, without standing in front of the art.
Public life
Aroub stood as a parliamentary candidate in 2007. This poster forms part of her public-life archive.
A voice for families
Her public work includes the campaign “My Nationality is a Right for My Family”.
Words, spoken
Her record also includes Arabic audio commentary for Monte Carlo Doualiya.
The full record.
Television, design, public life and writing: the chapters of a career shaped by working with people.
Television
- 1993
- Jordan Television, live: the weather on Yis’ad Sabahak, the morning programme. Then Studio Al Atfal and the quiz show Bisat Al Reeh. Media courses in France, Canada and Denmark before going on air.
- 1995
- Waqt Al Farah, to 1999. Live, two hours, children phoning in, their drawings shown on air; among the first live children’s programmes in the Arab world. Five years.
- 1997
- Saet Shabab with Ayman Al-Zayoud, the first Jordan Television programme for teenagers, to 1998.
- 1998
- Jordan Television sells Waqt Al Farah to ART for 500,000 Jordanian dinars.
- 1999
- ART Teenz. The programme becomes Awqat Al Farah. Kite festivals founded in the Dana Reserve and Umm Qais; episodes filmed at the Cervia kite festival, Italy.
- 2000
- Asra’ Ashtar Afya’, to 2002. Hosts the “Remember the Innocents” festival in Bethlehem, 15,000 children. Episodes in Rabat, Cairo, Dubai, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
- 2001
- Shabab 21 with Iyad Nassar, Jordan Television, recorded before a live audience at the Royal Cultural Centre, to 2002. Guest of honour at the children’s song festival; the song “Ahla Al-Kalam”.
- 2003
- Il’ab ma’ Hugo on ART Teenz, to 2004. Returns to Jordan Television with Waqt Al Farah for the reading campaign “Shu Al-Qissa?”.
- 2005
- ATV, lead writer and presenter, to 2009.
- 2015
- Waqt Al Farah returns on YouTube, sponsored by the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation, to 2017. Children’s stories with We Love Reading, to 2017. Women’s affairs consultant, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, to 2019.
Awards
- 1997
- Gold Award, Cairo Arab Media Festival, for Waqt Al Farah. Second prize, children’s drama, Tunis, for Al-Fanous Al-Sihri.
- 2016
- Certificate of appreciation, Jordanian Ministry of Culture, contribution to children’s culture.
- 2017
- Shield of honour, Omani Ministry of Information, contribution to Arab children’s culture.
- 2018
- TEDxYU, “Women in the Middle East”.
Design and study
- Childhood
- At about twelve, her mother suggested hanging her drawings on the long glass windows of the veranda. The neighbourhood children came to see her first exhibition.
- 1994
- Yarmouk University, Faculty of Fine Arts, interior design. Furniture drawings for Abu Issam Hijazi; work with the engineer Mahmoud Qadadeh; a house for Marwan Al-Bitar in Dabouq.
Public life
- 1995
- Board member, Friends of the Environment Society, Jordan, to 1998.
- Public work
- Youth conference director, Karama Human Rights Film Festival.
- 2007
- Candidate for Parliament, Amman Third District.
- 2013
- Founding member and spokesperson, My Nationality is a Right for My Family. MA in human rights and human development, University of Jordan.
Radio and writing
- 2003
- Weekly column “Kamshet Haki” in Ad-Dustour, eighteen months.
- 2011
- Analyst and contributor, Asahi Shimbun.
- 2013
- Weekly Arabic audio commentary for Monte Carlo Doualiya.
Consulting
- 2004
- Media consultant, MBC children’s programmes and “Kalam Nawaem”.
- 2010
- Drama content consultant, Al Jazeera Children’s Channel, to 2012. Media consultant, Jordan Media Institute, to 2011. Advisory board, Raneen audio library for children.
- 2017
- Trainer, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Young Journalists’ Academy, to 2019. Trainer, Penal Reform International, children’s rights in the media, to 2018. Consultant, UNICEF, media campaigns for children in Jordan and the region.
Canada
- In Canada
- By Lake Ontario, drawing moved back to the foreground. People, relationships, names and the natural world became the subjects of her current practice.
- 2026
- A card left at her sister’s Seela Salon led to requests from clients. Aroub later enlarged the design onto the entrance floor in Matthews, North Carolina.