Nadje Sadig Al-Ali discusses the mobilization of Iraqi women at upcoming lecture

Nadje Sadig Al-Ali, chair of the Centre for Gender Studies at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London, will give the second talk in the 2009 York U50 lecture series, Feminist Knowledge Reconsidered: Feminism and the Academy at York.

Left: Nadje Sadig Al-Ali

In this public lecture, Al-Ali, a prominent scholar, activist and gender expert on Iraq, will discuss “Iraqi Women Between Dictatorship, Sanctions, War and Occupation” Monday, March 23 from 2 to 4pm in the Founders Assembly Hall, 152 Founders College, Keele campus.

In her lecture, Al-Ali will address the deterioration of every day lives in Iraq since the war and occupation, the various forms of violence that women are exposed to, the impact of Islamic militias and ideologies, and women’s political mobilization and resistance to the occupation and increasing Islamic encroachment. The lecture is hosted by York’s Centre for Feminist Research and sponsored by York’s Institute for Feminist Legal Studies. There is no admission fee. University of Toronto Professor Shahrzad Mojab will be the discussant.

Al-Ali specializes in gender theory, feminist thought and activism, women in the Middle East, transnational migration, diaspora mobilization and the impact of sanctions, war and occupation on Iraqi women. 

Al-Ali will also be launching her new book What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation in Iraq, co-authored with Nicola Pratt, (University of California Press, 2009), at 7pm on Monday, March 23 at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore, 73 Harbord Street in downtown Toronto. Admission is free.

In addition, she is the author of Iraqi Women: Untold Stories from 1948 to the Present and Secularism, Gender & the State in the Middle East: The Egyptian Women’s Movement and a founding member of Act Together: Women’s Action for Iraq and Women in Black UK.

While there is no admission fee, advance registration is required. To register or for more information, contact Syed Hussan at shussan@yorku.ca.