On March 8, 2012, on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2012, The Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities and The Faculty of Business and Commercial Sciences, at USEK, organized two round-table discussions under the title of “Connecting Women, Inspiring Futures”.

Following the introduction by Mrs. Tracey Mansell, from the Faculty of Business and Commercial Sciences, the first round-table was held on the theme of “Women in Workplace”, and was moderated by Dr. Brighid Webster. First, Mrs. Joumana Rizk, Director of “Mirrors”, tackled “Key Issues faced by Women in the Regional Workplace”, highlighting the importance of communication in society and the need to set a coherent and comprehensive communication strategy in order to reach the largest number of people. Mrs. Samia El Solh, Chairperson for the Young Arab Women Entrepreneurs (YAWE), discussed “The Changing Role of Women in Different Professions”, underlining the main differences between communication and socialization.

The second round-table was held on the theme of “Women: Then and Now”, moderated by Prof. Hoda Nehme, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities. In her speech, Prof. Nehme highlighted that “… March 8 should not represent an occasion which we celebrate today and forget tomorrow. March 8 should be a lifestyle adopted by women, whether Arab or not”. Prof. Nehme considered that “… the Arab woman represents today the only mediator who is able to generate changes in the mentality, and it is up to her to rewrite the history of the Arab world in the name of humanity, values, ethics and justice…The Arab woman can succeed where politics has failed”. Afterwards, Dr. Maral Guidanian, Director General of the Central Administration of Statistics at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in Lebanon, dealt with the socio-economic situation of women in Lebanon. She presented statistics showing the rates of illiteracy in Lebanon and the rates of women’s participation in Lebanese economic life. While Mrs. Najla Mustapha Saad, President of the National Eye Bank Centre, highlighted the role of women in social development, and emphasized the success of the first cornea transplant surgeries that took place in Lebanon. Dr. Carmen Boustani, lecturer at the Lebanese University, treated the question of sexual differences within novels and fictional texts. She considered gestures as a language with its own cultural, racial, and even sexual and social particularity. Last but not least, Dr. Raif-Georges Khoury, from the University of Heidelberg in Germany, discussed the situation of Oriental students in Germany, particularly Arab students. He presented the various problems that female students face in Germany, which, according to him, cannot be easily solved without the achievement of authentic integration.