Al-Mufaqira: an academic journal on Libyan women.

Al-Mufaqira is an interdisciplinary on-line journal published in both English and Arabic by Jusoor Libya; a non-governmental organization committed to independent policy research on economic and social empowerment projects with a specific focus on women.

Al-Mufaqira aims to promote research on issues affecting Libyan women and serves as a platform for voices, academics and activists in Libya.  The on-line publication seeks to support Libyan women from diverse backgrounds and disciplines in doing what they are passionate about: learning, teaching and effecting positive change in their country.

Our work supports Jusoor Libya’s mission to promote human development by bridging gender inequality gaps, but also seeks to advance the frontiers of knowledge about the potential ways to advance the position of Libyan women.

Why does Al-Mufaqira exist?

Since 2011, numerous women’s rights organisations have emerged in Libya calling for inclusive transition, women’s rights, youth leadership, security, women’s political and economic participation, constitutional reform, and improved education. However, there is still a need to bridge the gap between think tanks and women’s empowerment groups. Al-Mufaqira aims to bridge this gap and to foster greater understanding about the specificities of Libyan women’s concerns.

Al-Mufaqira will publish articles, essays and reviews in order to encourage greater understanding about the ways in which examining gender is inextricably linked with other disciplines like: law, politics, economics, literature, culture, theology, sociology, anthropology and history. Al-Mufaqira seeks to become a platform where Libyan women from diverse research backgrounds are able to network with each other and develop exciting collaborative projects to further empower Libyan women.  In addition to this, Al-Mufaqira aims to undermine ill-informed perspectives about women’s issues in an attempt to nurture understanding that gender or women’s rights is a major sub-field of sociology and a field for interdisciplinary study.

 What do we publish?

Al-Mufaqira welcomes submissions that examine the situation of Libyan women through the lens of literature, anthropology, sociology, law, culture, history, politics and economics. We want our audience to develop an evolving relationship with Libyan women’s issues, through a continuous engagement with its diversity of perspectives, beliefs and visions. The on-line publication is experimental and therefore encourages exchanges across disciplines in order to present the complexity of the current situation, but to push for ways to encourage women’s empowerment through grass-roots mobilisation and thinking. Writing for Al-Mufaqira is a way to facilitate the circulation of thoughts about Libyan women’s issues and connect it to the flows of ongoing debates in Libya.