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Mobilizing Faith for Womento repair what we have broken. If our political leaderswon’t lead the way, then at least our religious leadersmust come forward.”Rishmawi described the role religious leadersshould play in holding the state accountable for itsresponsibility to protect, saying: “Religious leadershave a duty to explain the true spirit of religion. Theyhave a duty to explain to people that protecting life isthe core of religious values.”Commitment to ActionThe energy throughout the forum reflected participants’recognition of their shared struggle and itspower to unite rather than divide. Forming anemergent community of believers who are workingto advance human rights for all from within a religiousframework, the forum included participantswith diverse institutional positions that ranged fromleaders of national religious institutions to reformscholars to media and activists. Forum participantsresolved that remedying the prevalent disconnectamong these institutional platforms was one of themost important mandates emerging from the group’sdiscussions. Dr. Laurie Zoloth invited activists tojoin the next meeting of the American Academy ofReligion and submit requests for research based onwhat they see needed on the ground.Furthermore, all participants saw the inclusion ofmen as allies and partners as vital. In the strugglefor women’s human rights, men have diverse rolesto play. As Shiekh Omar Ahmed Tijani Niass of theTijani Sufi Order in Senegal noted, “Equality betweenwomen and men in the Qur’an is clear. I have asuggestion for men: They need to support women bysometimes just being silent.” Spoken by a prominentmale religious leader who guides many millions ofcongregants, such remarks have an instrumental valueand highlight how both silence and voice need to beemployed strategically by men seeking to advance thecause of social justice for women.The following pages illustrate the solutions andresources that participants generated through threedays of exchange and challenging engagement acrossfaiths, disciplines, and perhaps most importantly,institutional positions. From religious leaders toactivists and from reform theologians to communityorganizers, those present negotiated with empoweringand problematic texts and with examples of successand cases of desperate failure. As President Carterconcluded in his opening remarks: Child marriage,the physical abuse of women, women’s slavery, andgenital cutting are all excessive human rights abusesthat exist in the world in direct contravention of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights and, in myopinion, in direct contravention of the basic premisesof every great religion.“Equality between women andmen in the Qur’an is clear. Ihave a suggestion for men: Theyneed to support women bysometimes just being silent.”— Shiekh Omar Ahmed Tijani NiassParticipants held fast to the liberating potential ofreligion and the power of faith to drive the work forwomen’s rights — not only because turning away isnot an option for believers, as Zainah Anwar related,but because reconciling religion with the pursuit ofwomen’s human rights and dignity is an effectivestrategy for change.The Carter Center 15