Tension can arise between the advocacy of gender equality and claims made in the name of cultural diversity. In many social contexts, women can also be counted among the ‘new voices’ that have a distinctive role to play in the promotion of cultural diversity. Women are identifiable agents for cultural change since they are often the ones engaged in processes involving the validation and reinterpretation of cultural meaning and practices.

The role of women as ‘value carriers’ in the transmission of language, ethical codes, value systems, religious beliefs and behavioural patterns to their children is increasingly augmented by their role as ‘value creators’ (feminist theory having contributed to this development).

Recognition of the multiple identities of groups and individuals enables women not only to contest mainstream or dominant views from within but also to belong to other groups and even voluntarily to exit their communities of origin. Cultural diversity is to this extent bound up with recognition of women as autonomous agents in the construction of their identities.

A major obstacle still to be overcome is the pervasive gender discrimination and stereotyping that subordinate women to male-dominated interpretations of cultural traditions and religion. Demands by women for access to the public sphere and to full enjoyment of civil and political rights are increasingly widespread and insistent.

Other demands concern gender equality in the private sphere, where women have often been subject to legal discrimination, since family law has assumed either implicitly or explicitly that the traditional male-headed family is the natural household unit. Gender inequality is multidimensional and manifests itself in all areas of social life (the household, the labour market, property ownership, etc.) and interacts with other forms of inequality (racial, social, economic, age-based, etc.).

Issues relating to the promotion of women’s role in opening up new avenues of intercultural dialogue have been highlighted in the Dushanbe Declaration on ‘the Role of Women in Intercultural Dialogue in Central Asia’ (UNESCO, 2003) and in the Baku Declaration on ‘Expanding the Role of Women in Cross-cultural Dialogue’ (UNESCO/ISESCO, 2008).

New initiatives for intercultural dialogue have been launched in recent years, including the UN General Assembly’s proclamation of 2010 as the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures and its proposed designation of 2011– 2020 as the United Nations Decade of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace.

Intercultural capacities can be developed as tools to help level the ground of encounter between people from different cultures, on the basis of a strict equality of rights and an awareness that it is not so much cultures but people — individuals and groups, with their complexities and multiple allegiances — who are engaged in the process of dialogue. What conditions the success of intercultural dialogue is not so much knowledge of others but rather the basic abilities to listen, dialogue and wonder.

These prompt cognitive flexibility, empathy and the capacity to shift between different frames of reference, humility and hospitality. Informal networks, at the local or community level, and the arts and creativity generally speaking, must not be under estimated as valuable means by which to combat closed identities and promote cultural pluralism. Hence the need for continued refl ection on ways to establish genuine intercultural dialogue today, including the development of appropriate skills (based on respect for others, receptiveness, learning to listen), support for initiatives and networks of all kinds (including those convinced of and those sceptical about the value of dialogue) and the involvement of many new actors (women, young people) and so on.

Support should continue to be given to networks and initiatives for intercultural and interfaith dialogue at all levels, while ensuring the full involvement of new partners, especially women and young people. To this end, action should be taken to:
a. Develop measures to enable members of communities and groups subject to discrimination and stigmatization to participate in the framing of projects designed to counter cultural stereotyping.
b. Support initiatives aimed at developing real and virtual spaces and provide facilities for cultural interaction, especially in countries where inter-community conflict exists.
c. Showcase ‘places of memory’ that serve to symbolize and promote reconciliation between communities within an overall process of cultural rapprochement.



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