By YoCoJoin reporters: Ranim Alhoushi, Nisrine Koukouchi, Ngoc Thien An Nguyen
“Keeping an open mind and an open heart is what builds bridges between us.” This is the message that female leaders from the Brussels Peacebuilding and Multi-faith Forum hope to deliver, to call for action against the neglect of women’s rights and encourage women to actively contribute to promoting peace and religious freedom.
The Brussels Peacebuilding and Multi-faith Forum, organized by Empower Women Media and the Abraham Women’s Alliance, was held on March 19th in the European Parliament building in Brussels, the heart of Europe. The event featured female leaders, scholars and activists from different countries, cultures and religions.
Here, multiple discussions and dialogues took place between panel speakers, who had direct experience with the lack of religious freedom and gender equality in different areas around the world. These are accompanied by the film series “Live what you believe”, which was part of an interactive media-based training programme to educate on mutual understandings and universal religious freedom.
Throughout the 2-hour discussion, the injustice many women are facing was strongly called out: being looked down on in their societies, lacking access to proper healthcare and education, and being victims of wartime sexual crimes, to name a few. Speakers have left remarks on the urgent need to protect women’s rights and equip them with skills and opportunities to actively contribute to society. The close connection between female empowerment, religious freedom and peace was emphasized: women will get to claim their crucial role, as peace-oriented and empathetic beings, in building freedom and inter-religious harmony, which considerably reduces conflicts.
The forum concluded with a networking session where speakers and participants could connect and share more about each other’s experiences, projects and initiatives. “It’s a wonderful initiative. It’s so important that we as women connect, and that religion will not be in between us, that the common things we share will unite us,” said one of the participants.
European Parliamentarians’ Advisor Manel Msalmi and Filmmaker Deborah Paul, the two key speakers, expressed their strong beliefs in the uniting power of the Brussels forum. Deborah shared, “I feel very passionately that we often look at other people and think of them as being the other, and yet I feel like when we embrace people for where they’re at, that builds communities.”
Although having been held also at other places such as Dubai and Marrakech, for Manel, the forum’s arrival in the EU Parliament in Brussels is significant in its own right, implying the weight of political importance: “The European institutions have a big program to build diversity, inclusion within societies and also to help fight against racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination. I think it’s very important to have the message from the European Parliament, to show that there is this kind of initiative to fight against the rise of hate and hate speech in general”.
Disclaimer: Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Media Diversity Institute Global. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
