We are a group of researchers and activists interested in reading Arab cultural history from a gender-sensitive perspective. We decided to coordinate our research and activist efforts despite the diversity of our specializations and the diversity of our attitudes and ideological positions. What really bound us together was our feeling that there was an urgent need for the existence of effective Arab research institutions that would encourage and support researchers who are preoccupied with those aspects of culture that touch on contemporary women's issues. Furthermore, we share a belief in the importance of inter-disciplinary studies, strengthening bonds and enlarging areas of research across disciplines, with the aim of breaking out of the "academic exile" imposed upon researchers, due to the exaggeration in limiting researchers within their minute field of specialization. Last but not least, we all agree on the importance of carrying out specialized research in collaboration with activist women's groups that are preoccupied with the improvement of women's status in society.

The aim of re-reading Arab Cultural History from a gender sensitive perspective is to restore balance to the collective memory that was distorted due to the process of exclusion to which women, together with other marginalised categories in society, were subjected.

Given the role of collective memory in shaping identity, identifying the aspects of belonging and interconnection among members of the same society, and therefore enabling members of a community to define their priorities, history becomes a significant factor which influences contemporary social issues.

Our interest in reading Arab history takes as its point of departure the belief that women form an integral part of society, and that they played an important role in creating and shaping Arab History. However, they were excluded from the official written history, their role was relegated to the margin, and their contribution was belittled, which led to the distortion of history and hence the distortion of collective memory. The goal of the project is not merely academic, a quest for knowledge as a goal in itself. It is political in the first instance, that is: it is a manifestation of a conscious decision to contribute to the socio-cultural reality in order to make a difference and effect change towards a more just and balanced socio-cultural life for all.

Recent readings of the history of different peoples have, and still are, opening up vast spaces for knowledge. They have shed light on the relation between knowledge and power, that is, the dominant power. This resulted in the revision of some basic assumptions in official, legitimate research methodologies. There is an abundant tradition of studies in history that have managed to confront the processes of exclusion and marginalisation to which women were subjected both in disciplines and in everyday life. Similarly, there is a rich tradition of historical studies that revise prejudices in dominant historiography towards minorities and other disadvantaged groups in society. This research material is available, mainly, in foreign languages because it deals with the histories of other cultures and peoples. However, there is also a reasonable bulk of historical studies written in foreign languages about Arab history (by researchers of Arab origin or foreign).

A look at historical studies written in Arabic reveals that it is almost devoid of studies in Arabic history that deal with gender. The reasons underlying this shortcoming are numerous, thorny, and worthy of discussion; for example, and without elaboration, the general deterioration of research institutions; the collapse of research in general, and research in the field of the social sciences and the humanities in particular; the absence of a strong women's movement that has the ability and means to impose its own questions and interests on the cultural arena. There is an urgent need to create an accumulation of knowledge in Arab cultural history on the basis of gender-sensitivity, and the appropriation of modern theories in the fields of the humanities and social sciences, approaching history from different perspectives across different specializations. So much for the basic research assumptions adopted by the Forum.

The main aim underlying the establishment of the Women and

Memory Forum is to support research in Arab cultural history and encourage cultural publications that can potentially support women activist groups. Hence the work of the Forum’s members is directed to the production of both specialized cultural material and nonspecialized, easily accessible material to be available for a larger sector of readers.

To exemplify rather than enumerate, the Forum adopts the following projects: the production of an annual book containing specialized studies in Arab cultural history from a gender-sensitive perspective; accumulating and documenting the biographies of pioneer Egyptian women who participated in public life at the beginning of this century, especially those women who played dynamic roles in supporting the Arab feminist movement; experimenting with re-writing folktales; the production of a

Newsletter so as to support communication between researchers in the field of Arab cultural history and to facilitate exchange of expertise; the construction of a library specialized in historical studies; and the organization of seminars and lectures.

The projects are directed to one route which is: the production of cultural material that is liable to dismantle some prevalent concepts about women’s roles and their relation to culture, with the aim of making available effective cultural tools that would contribute to the eradication of the obstacles that hinder women’s development.