The seventh webinar in Baraza - URI Europe webinar series was titled “Hearing the Other “with the ears of the heart" - Resilience in our pandemic time and my hamsoya (neighbors)” and it was held on 26th February.

The talk is developed through an imaginary dialogue of neighbours or hamsoya [ham -together, and soya – shadow = share one shadow together]. Probably through such a feeling we might remember the ability not to listen to the talker only, but to hear the Other “with the ears of the heart” (bo gushi dil in Persian- Tajik). It is these links and connections, or humanness, which defines resilience among us – hamsoya / neighbors on this Planet. Humanness helps humans survive in the circumstances of adversity.

Prof. Dr. Nargis Nurulla-Khodzhaeva is a Culturologist, an Orientalist and a philosopher. Dr. Nargis T. Nurulla-Khodzhaeva was born and raised in the capital of Tajikistan - Dushanbe, in a family of celebrated cultural figures. Circumstances had it, that Nargis obtained a very international background, speaking fluently in different languages, and working in places such as Yemen and Sweden. Nargis studied History and Philosophy in the Tajik State University named after V.I. Lenin, and her PhD thesis was devoted to gender issues. After well-received initial success and noteworthy findings, Nargis moved to Moscow and began work on her monographs and doctoral thesis: “Communities in Central Asia”, successfully defending it 2013.

Nargis Nurulla–Khodzhaeva is senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow (Russia), and a Professor of Lomonosov Moscow State University (Institute of Asian and African Studies) (Russia)