Colorado State University – Pueblo hosts female Egyptian scholar for series of lectures

Pueblo- A female Egyptian scholar and woman’s rights activist with an expertise in sexuality of the Middle East will present three lectures at Colorado State University – Pueblo next week.

On Monday (Oct. 23), Riham Sheble will discuss prejudice from noon – 1 p.m. in Psychology 153, followed by a presentation on female genital mutilation from 2-3:30 p.m. in Psychology 205. On Tuesday, she will focus on Arabic women in literature from 8-9:30 a.m. in Psychology 202F.

Sheble graduated with highest honors from AUC (The American University in Cairo) with bachelor’s degrees in Arabic and Islamic Studies, and English and Comparative Literature. The undergraduate with highest GPA in the entire School of Humanities and Social Sciences, she was granted the Merit Fellowship to pursue an MA in Arabic Literature, which she completed at AUC in 2006.

Focusing her thesis on modern Arabic literature penned by Egyptian female authors manifested Riham’s keen interest in gender issues, be it in the literary or social domains. She is an expert on sexuality in the Middle East and a women’s rights activist, being especially involved in the anti-female-genital-mutilation campaign. Riham is personal narrator in a documentary entitled On Their Own, as well as lending her voice to numerous panel discussions and TV programs on women’s rights. She received the Sexuality Leadership Development Fellowship from the Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Center in Lagos, Nigeria.

Her community-based, gender-related achievements won Riham a position on the advisory committee for the Institute of Gender and Women’s Studies at AUC, as well as being affiliated with the Cairo office of the Population Council. She is a member of Writers and Artists for Change, a political group working towards promoting democracy and freedom of expression in Egypt. She is an editor and translator, as well as contributing to local and international academic journals. She also has performed in story-telling and poetry-recitation events, emphasizing gender-sensitive readings in her selections.

For more information, contact Dr. Karen Yescavage, associate professor of psychology (??), at 549-2719 or by e-mail at Karen.yescavage@colostate-pueblo.edu.



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