Last night Bollywood and Hollywood A-listers were out in force to celebrate some of the world’s unsung heroes, our teachers. They gathered in support of the Global Teacher Prize at an event hosted by the Varkey Foundation, a non-profit organisation set up to improve the standards of education for underprivileged children throughout the world.

At the Atlantis, Matthew McConaughey and Salma Hayek joined a number of Bollywood stars including Parineeti Chopra, Askhay Kumar, Ali Zafar, Abhishek Bachanan and other big names movie stars from around the world.

It seems the crowd went wild when Chopra showed McConaughey a few Bollywood moves… they danced to Khaike Paan Banaraswala by well known musical and film all-rounder, Kishore Kumar.

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The Global Teacher Prize is an annual $1 million (AED 3.6 million) award given to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to his/her profession. 

This year’s winner is Hanan Al-Hroub from from Samiha Khalil High School, Al-Bireh, Palestine. Hroub grew up in Bethlehem refugee camp where she was regularly exposed to acts of violence. She went into primary education after her children were left deeply traumatised by a shooting incident they witnessed on their way home from school.

On being handed the award she spoke with passion: 

“I am proud to be a Palestinian female teacher standing on this stage. I accept this as a win for all teachers in general and Palestinian teachers in particular,” Al Hroub said. “We, as teachers can build the values and morals of young minds to ensure a fair world, a more beautiful world and a more free world.” She spoke with pride in her success. “The Palestinian teacher can talk to the world now. Hand in hand we can affect change and provide a safe education to provide peace,” she said.

Hroub was chosen as winner amongst 8,000 applicants.

This award seeks to celebrate the #GirlRising movement, which a number of celebrities, including Priyanka Chopra have endorsed. 

So you don’t have to scroll throw Twitter and Instagram yourself, here are a few images of the celebs enjoying last night’s gala…

While they clearly had fun, some didn’t get enough sleep. Here’s Abhishek Bachchan sleep walking through Dubai airport in the wee hours…

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