"ISLAM: THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SPHERES"
Conference at New School University Challenges
Assumptions About Islam
Speakers include Iranian dissident Mohsen Kadivar, Al-Jazeera Washington Bureau
Chief Hafez al-Mirazi, filmmaker Amir Naderi, novelist Orhan Pamuk
Thursday, December 5 - Saturday, December 7, 2002

(New York, NY – October 21, 2002) "This is 'about Islam'," wrote Salman Rushdie in the New York Times and the Guardian nearly one year ago, in response to the events of September 11th, citing "paranoid Islam" as "the fastest-growing version of Islam in the world."

The terms of discussion have since shifted to international terrorist networks, dictatorial regimes, and weapons of mass destruction. But Islam, an ancient, diverse, and (at least in the West) widely misunderstood religion, remains the undertone to the United States of America's ominous orchestration of war.

At a three-day public conference at New School University, to be held on Thursday, December 5- Saturday, December 7, 2002, talk will be "about Islam." Under the title "Islam: The Public and Private Spheres," speakers and audience will explore the spectrum of Islamic societies worldwide and their varying understandings those societies have of the boundary between private and public.

"The boundary between public and private is a contested issue in any society, no less so in the Islamic world," says conference organizer Arien Mack, Editor of Social Research journal and Marrow Professor of Psychology at the New School University. "Now more than ever, it is critical that we move beyond stereotypes toward a more nuanced understanding of Islam. This conference takes a familiar issue, that of privacy, to illuminate how Islamic societies resemble and differ from each other, as well as from our own."

The conference will bring together leading scholars, journalists, writers, and filmmakers, including Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, Iranian filmmaker Amir Naderi, and the Washington Bureau Chief of Al-Jazeera Television, Hafez al-Mirazi.

The keynote address on Thursday, December 5 at 6:00 p.m. will be given by Mohsen Kadivar, Iranian philosopher, theologian, and dissident. Mr. Kadivar is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Tarbiat Modares University in Iran; Visiting Scholar, Islamic Legal Studies, Harvard Law School, and author of Theories of State in Shiite Fiqh.

Conference sessions will examine issues related to the understandings of public and private in Islamic societies. Panels will include: "Islamic Law: Boundaries and Rights"; "Individual, Family, Community and State"; "Media and Information"; and "Representations of Privacy in Literature and Film."

A film screening of "Waiting" (Iran, 1975) by Amir Naderi will conclude the conference. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Naderi, focusing on how his films present and represent that which is meant to be private.

Support for the conference has been provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, Open Society Institute, and others.

Conference sessions will take place at Tishman Auditorium, New School University, 66 West 12th Street, NYC. Admission is $30 for all conference sessions, or $7 per individual session. For further information, call 212-229-2488 or visit the conference Web site at www.socres.org/islam.

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The distinction between public and private is one of society's most crucial and contested issues. Islam, the world's most populous religion, is also, at least in the West, perhaps the most misunderstood. This conference explores the diversity of Islamic societies worldwide, probing their varying conceptions of privacy as a way of illuminating how these societies resemble and differ from each other and from our own, at a time when this understanding is of critical importance.

For more information or to register, visit our conference website at www.socres.org/islam, call 212.229.2488, or email [email protected]. Admission is $30 or $7 for each individual session. Full-time students with valid ID admitted free.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5
Session 1: Keynote Address 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m
Understandings of public and private in Islamic societies.
Speaker: Mohsen Kadivar

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6
Session 2: Islamic Law: Boundaries and Rights: Case Studies 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
How are questions of boundaries and rights negotiated in states governed by Sharia? How do these negotiations compare with those in predominantly Muslim states governed by civil law, or possibly Islamic communities in the diaspora?
Speakers: Baber Johansen, Brinkley Messick, Roy Mottahedeh, Frank E. Vogel
Moderator: Talal Asad

Session 3: Individual, Family, Community and State: Case Studies 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
What is the concept of the individual? How are distinctions between public and private articulated within and across the boundaries of individual, family, community and state?
Speakers: Juan Cole, Nilufer Gole, Mehrangiz Kar, Saba Mahmood
Moderator: Leila Ahmed

Conference Reception, 65 Fifth Avenue, 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Session 4: Media and Information: Case Studies 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Who determines what and how information is made public? What is the role of the media in
civil society and its impact on privacy?
Speakers: Geneive Abdo, Jon Anderson, Hafez al-Mirazi, Hassan Mneimneh
Moderator: Kian Tajbakhsh

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7
Session 5: Representations of Privacy in Literature and Film: Case Studies 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
How are the concepts of privacy and the private sphere interpreted and represented in literature and
film? Art imitating life/life imitating art?
Speakers: Hamid Dabashi, Assia Djebar, Azar Nafisi, Orhan Pamuk
Moderator: Farhad Kazemi

Session 6: Film Screening and Discussion 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
WAITING (Iran, 1975), A film by Amir Naderi
The film will be followed by a discussion between Mr. Naderi and Hamid Dabashi focusing on how
privacy is represented in this and other of his films.
Speaker: Amir Naderi
Moderator: Hamid Dabashi

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New School University, with 7,000 matriculated students and 25,000 continuing education students, is a New York City university committed to critical scholarship, artistic integrity, and ethical responsibility in the social sciences, humanities, the arts and design. It is comprised of a liberal arts foundation of three schools: The New School, Eugene Lang College and the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, and five professional schools: Parsons School of Design, Mannes College of Music, Actors Studio Drama School, Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, and the Jazz & Contemporary Music Program. New School Online University offers one of the largest selections of online courses in the nation. For further information about admission to New School University, call (877) 5Ave-321 or go to the Web site at www.newschool.edu

The Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science awards M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Anthropology, Economics, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. In addition, interdisciplinary M.A. programs are offered in Historical Studies and Liberal Studies. Teaching and research at the Graduate Faculty, which derive from a progressive political tradition, are grounded in the core social sciences and broadened with a commitment to philosophical and historical inquiry. The Graduate Faculty has an enrollment of about 1,050 students. International students comprise nearly 30% of the student body and come from about 70 different countries. Richard Bernstein is Dean of the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science. For further information on the Graduate Faculty, call (212) 229-5777 or go to the Web site at www.newschool.edu/gf