Ibn Rushd Young #3
Sex Talk Bel-Araby
Please register https://forms.gle/DUFo49r3dJgh4tLy6 or by email contact@ibn-rushd.org |
With our series ‘Ibn Rushd Young’, we want to give young researchers, intellectuals and artists the opportunity to present and discuss their current project with a (more or less) young audience interested in the respective topic, or maybe even working on a similar one. With this new format, we are establishing a kind of extra-university, non-hierarchical, and interdisciplinary colloquium on topics, issues, and projects which are related, in one way or another, to the Arab World. |

The third event of the series will take a closer look at – and listen to – Sex talk Bel-Araby. How does sex talk on social media platforms challenge local notions of hegemonic masculinity in the MENA region? Social media have played a significant role in advancing feminist movements in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Several influential social media campaigns have championed women’s rights in the area. These campaigns have addressed not only legal reform and women rights, but also several issues, including driving rights and bodily autonomy, and provided community efforts in fighting sexual violence against women. In addition, there are social media platforms that provide virtual spaces for women and queer people to connect, seek help or advice. With social media blurring the lines between public and private gendered spaces, expression of sexuality and questions related to sexual health are discussed relatively freely on social media platforms, with the advantage of the relative anonymity provided by virtual spaces. The novelty of such platforms is that they provide the content in Arabic and for free, making it accessible to wider audiences from different social and economic backgrounds. In the MENA region, expression of sexuality and sex in public spaces remains a highly masculine domain. However, the lack of constraints and control over social media platforms provides more freedom to women and queer people to negotiate sex and sexuality on a wider public scale, that is otherwise prohibited or restricted. In this talk, the challenges associated with creating such platforms will be explored, as well as the reactions that they instigate in their respective local communities. And to which extent does the spread of such platforms challenge local heteronormative conceptions of sexual relations and notions of hegemonic masculinity? Noha Sherif will present her findings in Berlin on January 21, 2021, at 20hrs in Lettrétage at ACUD Studio, Veteranenstraße 21, 10119 Berlin The lecture will be held in English. In the subsequent discussion, questions and contributions to the discussion will also be possible in German and Arabic, and, like in all our events, we will translate as best as we can. Noha Sherif began her academic journey as a dentist but soon discovered that her passion for literature and cultural studies was what she truly wanted to pursue. She graduated from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin with a degree in Cultural Studies, specializing in the intersection of gender studies, postcolonial theory, and phenomenology.She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Gender Studies at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Her research focuses on Middle Eastern studies through the lenses of gender, migration, and post-migration studies, with additional interests in postcolonial and colonial theory. She also explores themes of embodiment and performativity in her work. |
21. January 2025 – 20:00 Lettrétage at ACUD Studio, Veteranenstraße 21, 10119 BerlinPlease register here for the event |
We invite young researchers and/or artists and/or intellectuals who would like to discuss their findings, their work in progress, a current chapter of their thesis, dissertation, or an upcoming project, to take part and thus shape this interdisciplinary series with us. You are writing a book, an article, an essay, and/or are establishing a theory you would like to discuss with like-minded people in order to sharpen it a bit, or you have a project in mind but want to discuss it to get some help to speed up and move your thoughts faster – write to young@ibn-rushd.org and we will see if, how and when to fit it in. We are in this series aiming at a mix of events happening live in person in Berlin, or as online events/webinars. You want to join our organizing team, in person in Berlin or online? Ahlan wa sahlan – please get in touch! |