Celebrating Arab Feminisms: Resistance and Resilience

Women have many faces, and feminism has just as many. Protest against oppression and the struggle for freedom and equality are always influenced by the place and society in which women live.

There are many prejudices about Arab societies, and at least as many about their female members. When is a woman free, and is freedom the same at all times and in all places? Is resistance to patriarchy and the desire for change the same everywhere?

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The Orientalisation of the Holy Land

where is “the Holy Land” actually located? Holiness comes from within the believers, and a person, an object or a place only becomes sacred through the attribution of a religious meaning. How does this process affect those who actually live in a sacred place every day? Who perhaps do not share the religiosity ascribed to the place? And how does it affect those who do not live there and for whom sacredness is more important than the actual place and its inhabitants?

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Ibn Rushd Young N°4 \\ Beyond the Frame

Independent storytelling is an act of courage. It challenges norms, reclaims voices, and builds bridges between cultures. We invite you to join us for the upcoming Ibn Rushd Young event with the filmmakers Klud Dabash and Mehmet Küçük. With the boundary-pushing narratives of their films, they explore the complexities of identity, power, migration and creative resistance.
Selected scenes from their films will be shown:

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Young, Palestinian, and Stateless: Youthful Protest Movements in the Palestinian Refugee Camps of Lebanon

Online Event in English without translation. Questions and contributions to the discussion following the lecture can also be asked in Arabic, we will translate to the best of our ability. Admission free, please register here: registration (link) In 2015, a demonstration erupted in Burj al-Barajne, Beirut’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, after a resident was killed […]

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Of Roman salutes, watermelons and collections

A guide through the narrowing corridors of freedom of expression Event in German without translation. Questions and contributions to the discussion following the lecture can also be asked in Arabic and English, we will translate to the best of our ability. The accelerated, ubiquitous and relentless assault on all our senses through news, online media […]

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Climate Change and Sustainable Environment: Challenges of Environmental Media in the Arab World

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity today, as it affects various aspects of our lives, including the environment, economy, health, food security, and society as a whole. The Middle East and North Africa region, in particular, is among the most affected regions by climate change, facing dramatically rising temperatures, water scarcity, […]

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Femininity, Masculinity and their Manifestations in Contemporary Arab Culture

What are the most manifestations of “masculinity” and “femininity” in contemporary Arab culture? How did the rising influence of social media and the 2011 uprisings impact the concepts of “masculinity” and “femininity“?
We will discuss these questions in our forthcoming lecture with Dr. Amal Grami and Dr.Hanadi Al-Samman.

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Report and Recording – Ideologies in Crisis – What are the Alternatives? short version

An Ibn Rushd Lecture with the ex-President of Tunisia Dr Moncef Marzouki, Prof Dr Udo Steinbach and Manal Seifeldin. What distinguishes the 21st century from the previous centuries and especially from the 20th century? What facts and realities should we relate to? How do we understand our world today and what is the role that […]

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Report and Recording – Ideologies in Crisis – What are the Alternatives?

An Ibn Rushd Lecture with the ex-President of Tunisia Dr Moncef Marzouki, Prof Dr Udo Steinbach and Manal Seifeldin. What distinguishes the 21st century from the previous centuries and especially from the 20th century? What facts and realities should we relate to? How do we understand our world today and what is the role that […]

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Ideologies in Crisis – What are the Alternatives?

Ibn Rushd Lecture by Dr Moncef Marzouki, President of the Republic of Tunisia from 2011-2014 To register, please use this link. Speakers and Moderators: Dr. Moncef Marzouki: Dr. Marzouki was the first democratically elected president of Tunisia after the January 14th Revolution in 2011, a seminal moment in modern Arab history which heralded the onset […]

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30.01.22 | Contemporary Challenges for Pluralism in the Islamic Context

Dear Friends of Freedom of Thought, The discourse on promoting the concept of a multi-cultural society is considered an urgent endeavor to encourage plurality, tolerance, fight discrimination, and foster a peaceful, prosperous social environment in all contemporary societies. In Western societies, a multi-cultural discourse is asserted within a modern secular paradigm in the writings of […]

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Freedom? On the philosophy of liberation according to M Aziz Lahbabi

Freedom. Each language has its own special connotations vibrating along with this value, such as the famous French ‘liberté’ or the American ‘freedom’, and since the Arab revolutions the time has come to reflect on the contemporary and historic meanings resonating with the Arabic ‘hurriyah’. The Moroccan philosopher Rachid Boutayeb and the German theologian, philosopher […]

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Contemporary Arab Culture From Description to Change

(Linguistic and Sociologic Perspectives) Mohammed Chawich analyses what constitutes contemporary Arab culture – its major trends and possible linguistic and social perspectives – through a new look at the concept of “modernity” and “tradition”. His thesis is that the “revolutionary” currents in this ideology, divided between “nationalism”, “socialism” and “Islamism” share a hidden side creating a […]

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Arab Political Thought, the Syrian Revolution & the Question of Asylum

Dr. Housamedden Darwish Ibn Rushd Lecture on Wednesday, 26th April, at 8:00pm in the Lettrétage Berlin. The Syrian philosopher Hosamedden Darwish spoke on Critical Ideas in Arab Political Thought, the Syrian Revolution and the Question of Asylum. In his recently published book Critical texts in Arab Political Thought, the Syrian Revolution and Asylum: In the Example of Bishara and […]

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Ibn Rushd Lecture with Dr. Mohamed Adel Mtimet – The missing of the idividual in the Arab culture

the unmentioned paradox when calling  for democracy in the Arab world: On July 19th 2016 the Tunisian philosopher Mohamed Adel Mtimet held an Ibn Rushd Lecture with the title, “The absence of the individual in Arab culture – the unmentioned paradox when calling  for democracy in the Arab world”. Does the Arab culture provide the […]

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Carol Mansour: Not Who We Are

The Film “Not Who We Are” portrays the lives of five Syrian women with a different sociocultural background. As refugees in Lebanon, they are fighting against the brutality of their daily lives, and try to rebuild their existence that has been destryed b the war. In the film they allow us to gain an insight into their daily distress, but also into their strengths, resilience and survival instinct.

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