Consultation: (Inter)faith based peacebuilding: The need for a gender perspective (2010)

During the last session of the Consultation, participants formulated a set of recommendations for activists and policy makers in regard to supporting the involvement of women in faith-based and interfaith peacebuilding.

Support and sustainability:

• Religious interpretations and cultural practices have become closely intertwined, with patriarchal values infusing religious interpretations and practices at the expense of women’s equality and rights. In order to challenge these practices, it is crucial to support and invest in progressive religious scholars, theologians and activists who are reinterpreting religious texts from a women’s perspective. In that regard, education and capacity building – both of religious leaders and of the general public – are important areas of focus.
• To sustain each other, it is important to create a network so as to be able to express support for each other’s work, exchange experiences, and support strong female religious leaders within the different faith traditions.

Building bridges:

• Involving progressive male religious leaders as allies in the work for more gender-sensitive, faith-based peacebuilding is crucial, as is actively co-operating with and including progressive men’s groups within each of the different faith traditions. The participants stressed that men are not the problem; rather, it is the patriarchal system that manifests itself in discriminatory and fundamentalist religious thinking. It is important to showcase examples of how men also become victims of fundamentalist interpretations and how women also contribute to sustaining this patriarchal system. An inclusive gender analysis is crucial if men are to understand and recognize their stake in the work for gender justice.
• As religious leaders are important role models in society, their position on gender equality is crucial, since it will significantly impact public opinion. It is therefore important to include them in women’s peace work and get them “on board” in terms of raising the public’s awareness about gender issues.
• Faith-based peacebuilding work should not take place in isolation from secular peacebuilding initiatives. Women of faith often create their own spaces, also because they may not feel understood or accepted by more secular (women’s) NGOs, which tend to perceive religion mainly as a source of oppression for women. It is important to get away from the “either/or” way of thinking, which pits religion against women’s rights. Placing the multitude of problems that women face within such a narrow framework will not help to address them effectively and can form an obstacle in terms of ensuring that gender is on the agenda of faith-based peacebuilding. Many women peacemakers do not want to choose between religion and women’s rights when working for peace and gender equality in their community, country or region. It is therefore important that both faith-based and secular women activists engage with one another in their work for gender justice and gender-sensitive peacebuilding. Work needs to be done in terms of claiming the right to redefine religion, bringing out its positive and empowering aspects in women’s lives while strategizing against harmful and discriminatory practices that are justified on the basis of religion.

Creating awareness and further education:

• Considering that ten years of UNSCR 1325 have yet to bring forth the results hoped for, it is crucial to “translate” UNSCR 1325 and related resolutions into the local realities and contexts, so that they will make sense to the local (religious) communities and people will be more apt to internalize them.
• As the issues of women’s rights / religion / peacebuilding are complex, it is important to educate donors, policy makers, religious institutions, and civil society on how interfaith and faith-based peacebuilding impacts on women’s lives. It is important to recognize that religion can also be a driving force that leads women to engage in peacebuilding and other activist work. Likewise, it is crucial to acknowledge that religious leaders have an important voice in communities (with the potential to obstruct as well as to promote gender equality). Hence, religious leaders should not be ignored as stakeholders by those working for women’s rights and gender justice. 
• Creativity is important! (During the Consultation days, several participants shared inspiring and creative examples of how they managed to get religious leaders on board in their work for women’s rights.)