The Arab Students Society organized the Seminar on the Arab World
On 28 and 29 April took place the Seminar on the Arab World, where experts talked about the art, culture and history of the Arab World.
The events of the first day of the seminar took place in the Historic Building of the Universitat de Barcelona. First, there were three short conferences to help the attendants understand the context of the Arab World. Theo Loinaz, associate professor of the Department of Arabic Studies at the Universitat de Barcelona, talked about the use of classical Arabic in the Arab World, and highlighted the continued use of this language, which has not had any native speakers for centuries. Jorge Ariza and Adil Saha talked about the history of art in the Arab World and also its socio-political history, and highlighted the importance of Arab socialism in the events of the last few decades in the Arab World.
Afterwards, Èlia Romo (researcher in Islamic Feminism at the UB), Marc Oliveras (professor of the Department of Arabic Studies at UB) and Mohammad Bitari (Syrian journalist) took a closer look at the Arab world and discussed the women’s role in the Arab World, the defence of their rights and their presence in the public spheres. They also analysed the term Yihad in the Quran and in Arab culture and made special mention to the situation of young Palestinians Syria since the Revolution.
The conferences of the second day of the seminar took place in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the speakers were: Mònica Rius (Professor of the Department of Semitic Languages at the UB), Pedro Fatjo (Doctor of Economic History at the UAB), Zaki Al Rifai (Syrian and Catalan Association for freedom and democracy), Cristina Mas (Solidarity with the Syrian People Committee) and Lluís Palau (Historian). In these talks, an analysis was made of the situation of Syria six years after the Revolution, as well as of the conflict’s consequences and the international community’s role in the war. The speakers also provided the attendants with an overview of the Arab Wold’s history, the decolonization processes of the Middle East and the current situation of Syrian refugees.