International Panel Discussion “Arab Feminist Action between Academic Vision and Struggle Practice”

The Women’s Studies Network “Safeen”, in partnership with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and in cooperation with other research and scientific institutions, and with the participation of a group of researchers from the Arab world, organized an international panel discussion “Arab feminist work between academic vision and struggle practice” on August 17, 2023, physically at ALECSO Headquarters – Tunisia and virtually via Zoom. The international panel discussion included two scientific sessions, the first of which dealt with the issue of Arab feminist discourse: between academia and struggle, and presenting the path of global and Arab feminism by demonstrating the close relationship between academia and struggle within the historical waves of Arab and international feminism, as well as the representations of feminism between theory and practice, by studying the content of women’s movements in the Tunisian experience before and after the Arab Spring. In addition to discussing the challenges of Arab feminism, between the discourses of liberation and reaction towards the issue of women, which cannot be separated from the comprehensive issues of national liberation that concern the human being as a full citizen regardless of his biological condition. The first session concluded with the issue of guardianship as a problem that highlights the contradiction between the use of guardianship as a concept whose purpose is the guardianship of the husband and his care for the interests of his wife and the development of the social and economic reality of women and their entry into the labor market. The second session dealt with the issue of Arab feminism between the discourses of tradition and modernity by emphasizing the role of the intellectual, sociologist or anthropologist who must dig deep to expose all Muslim women to collapse and expose unconscious symbolic structures. The second intervention discussed the issue of empowering Arab women in light of the challenges of artificial intelligence, and the problem of the low levels of women’s work in the field of artificial intelligence as a result of the dominance of illogical algorithms in their gender bias that assume that men are the basis, and women are the exception. The panel discussion concluded with a general discussion and interaction from the audience, whether in the hall or via the Zoom application, and with multiple comments that stressed the importance of the role of women in defending their social fabric, and their identity, which cannot be separated from the identity of men. Most of the contributions stressed the importance of unity among women as a prerequisite for building Arab societies, on the one hand, and the need to reconsider Arab feminist discourses and deepen their dismantling, understanding and analysis to achieve progress in addressing Arab women’s issues and their current problems and the challenges that prevented their progress in order to raise the status they deserve, on the other hand.