WMF Organizes a Roundtable Discussion on the “Nature of Men and Women”
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The Women and Memory Forum (WMF) organized a roundtable to discuss the nature of men and women. The roundtable was held on 9 May 2001 at the WMF headquarters in Cairo, and was moderated by Dr. Omaima Abou-Bakr.
A group of specialists participated in the roundtable discussion. Ahmed Abd-Allah, Lecturer of Psychology at Zagazig University, discussed the function of socialization and social upbringing in nurturing human faculties. Dr. Adel Abu-Zahra, Professor of Behavioral Sciences at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport, untangled the confusion between ‘nature’ and the historically and culturally constructed ‘social stereotype.’ Dr. Malak Rushdi, Lecturer of Sociology at the American University in Cairo, presented the modern social theories on gender relations. Heba Raouf Ezzat, Assistant Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University, called for shifting the discussion from the nature of men and women towards the common human nature as a shared human condition manifested in the general concept of citizenship, and raised questions regarding how such shared humanity will manifest itself in the future. Sahar Sobhi, Lecturer at the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, examined the historical context of the rise and evolution of ‘nature’ as a concept in the West, and its relation to the development of scientific racism as a field based on biological differences.
