Professor Arifa Farid, Professor Emeritus at the University of Karach, and visiting professor at the Catholic University of America, was a guest speaker at IIIT on Friday October 18, 2008. She offered a critique of the Western tradition of liberalism and its alternatives.

Professor Arifa Farid is a professor of Philosophy (retired), former Dean of the Faculty of Arts and former Chair of the Departments of Philosophy  at the University of Karachi, Pakistan. She was also Director of the Center of Excellence for Women Studies, Unviersity of Karachi and President of Pakistan Philosophical Congress.

She is recipient of various Academic Awards including: Best University Teachers Award (2000) and Senior Fulbright Fellow/Scholar USA (1989-1990).

Her area of specialization is Analytical Philosophy: Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Religion, Feminism, Philosophy of Culture (concentrating on Islamic culture and Pakistani culture), Social Issues in Philosophy, Western Philosophy (both traditional and contemporary), and Islamic Philosophy.

She is the author of many books on Islamic culture and Pakistani culture in relation to Western culture, and has more than fifty papers to her credit published in various journals of international repute.

She is presently concentrating mostly on Islamic Studies with special emphasis on Women in Islam vis a vis other religions, and on Islamic culture/civilization versus Western civilization.