Conference of the International Network of Women Philosophers: “Arab Spring as seen by Women Philosophers”

On the occasion of the launching of issue 2-3 of the Women Philosophers’ Journal, the International Network of Women Philosophers, sponsored by UNESCO, is organizing a conference on “Arab Spring as seen by Women Philosophers. The Arab Springs – Sustainable Springs? What women philosophers think of the (new) Arab world. What women philosophers of the (new) Arab world think.”

The conference, in line with the second issue of the Women Philosophers’ Journal, reflects on one of the major social transformations under way in the Arab region: the Arab Spring.

It has not only changed the political system in the region but also affected the rights and status of women. On the streets men and women were struggling, shoulder to shoulder, calling for the departure of dictators and the setting up of democratic pluralism. Women participated in person, not by delegation, in the creation of a new world.

The conference will discuss if the Arab Spring is sustainable in the view of women philosophers with particular attention being paid to the perspective of those living in the region; and, secondly, it will look at what women philosophers think about the new Arab world.

An exhibition of the series “Curtains of mosques” performed by photographer Arnaud From Boistesselin, will also be opened.

Representatives of the International Network of Women Philosophers, UNESCO, and the Ecole Normale Supérieure de la rue d’Ulm, along with women philosophers from the Arab world, will participate in the event.

The Women Philosophers’ Journal, of which the second number will be presented on this occasion, is a philosophy journal, but not in the usual meaning of the term. It is not only philosophers who write in it. Philosophy is not the only topic which is being discussed. It is produced by women but men too are invited to contribute.

It is a journal for everybody. It aims to give women’s thinking the freedom and visibility that current knowledge structures do not – or at least not in the appropriate form, and certainly not throughout the world.