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Mobilizing Faith for Womenmethodologies to bring peace into the lives ofour communities.”Participants agreed that an expansive list ofstakeholders — including law enforcement, judges,and teachers — should be at the table when women’srights and human rights are addressed. “Partnershipin the community is key,” Magid shared, challengingthose present to “go back home and think about thepartnerships we can create.” Building coalitions withsecular activists and organizations is one of theseimperatives. Friesen Hall reflected on the importanceof bringing in secular sisters to tell them that faithcommunities are the most organized groups in theworld. “If we don’t engage them, we are missing outon a huge opportunity,” she said. From activists tojournalists to diplomats, the religious illiteracy ofthought leaders was highlighted as a major challengeto engaging in such coalition-building. Training onthe complexities of religious life was called for toencourage responsible reporting, conduct, and policyand to encourage openness of secular actors to theliberatory possibilities of religion.Connecting Activism and AcademiaKarin Ryan and Fulata Moyo asserted that a “methodologyof human dignity” can redress such subversionof rights. Arguing that awareness of the U.N.’s humanrights system can engender greater accountability byutilizing investigators and periodic review systems,Ryan pointed out that “sometimes religious communitiesare unconnected from and even unaware of this“We need to create anew jurisprudence, a newknowledge of human rightsand women’s rights. Thisneeds to be done by womenthemselves, on the ground.”— Dr. Ziba Mir-HosseiniAction Items• Write open letters to your community.• Convene university chaplains.• Create virtual clergy and reach out throughsocial media.• Partner with religious journalists.• Train secular journalists, law enforcement,teachers, diplomats, and activists how tonavigate religion.• Create a human rights certification for clergy.• Establish council of religious leaders for humanrights.• Create YouTube channels and videos in locallanguages.• Establish a think tank for debating scripturalinterpretations.• Publish a series of scholarly works on socialjustice and women.• Reform curricula in seminaries and schools oftheology.• Establish awards for young scholars of feministstudies in religion.• Create a bibliography or clearinghouse ofresources on this topic.• Establish a people’s request for proposals toenable activists to direct scholarship.• Research different ways to frame our argumentsfor different audiences.framework.” Magid emphasized the importance ofdocuments that go beyond declarations, documentsforged with the buy-in of religious authorities, whichcan be used to hold nations and religious leadersaccountable. Dr. Ziba Mir-Hosseini asserted that toexpand the legitimacy of such regimes, “We needto create a new jurisprudence, a new knowledgeof human rights and women’s rights. This needsto be done by women themselves, on the ground.”Religious scholars spoke about the need to transformthe scholarship for a new generation of leaders. TheThe Carter Center 49

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