17. July 2024
Encounter day for women: Peace and hope
Around 90 women from different generations and religious traditions gathered for the 7th Interreligious Encounter Day for Women at the Hospitalhof in Stuttgart, which this year had the motto “Living Peace”.
In addition to the lecture “Waging war, living peace: Changing constructions of masculinity in the context of peacebuilding” by Dr Maike Messerschmidt, the programme included a total of six group discussions and eight workshops on topics such as “Female self-care as a contribution to peace”, “Non-violent communication”, “Conflict management – peace in everyday life”, among others. Over lunch together and during an interfaith prayer for peace, the women campaigned for cohesion and reconciliation. Pianist Irina Samovski accompanied the women musically throughout the day.
A multi-religious team from eleven institutions organised the event, which was coordinated by the Hospitalhof Protestant Education Centre Hospitalhof Stuttgart.
WARS AND GENDER CONSTRUCTIONS
KEY INSTRUMENTS OF PEACEBUILDING
Alessa Koch (Katholisches Bildungswerk Stuttgart) introduced the 7th Encounter Day for Women by emphasising the longing for peace. Under the motto “Living peace”, 90 women from different generations and religious traditions gathered for a diverse exchange.
Raising socio-political issues is an important part of the interfaith meeting: Dr des. Maike Messerschmidt (University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich) gave a lecture on the topic of “Wars and gender constructions”. Using the example of the civil wars in Uganda, she illustrated that violence is also used as a means of conflict resolution after the war. She presented instruments of peacebuilding that aim to transform violence-centred masculinities into peace-compatible masculinities. She concluded that change tends to happen on a small scale. One of the hurdles mentioned was the great adhesive forces and the resilience of patriarchy and militarism. The development of the women’s peace movement in Liberia and the inclusion of women in the police force were emphasised positively.
CONTRIBUTING TO PEACE IN SMALL WAYS
The women asked about the impact of violence-centred masculinities on women and their biographies. They expressed empathy for female victims of sexual violence in times of war and criticised the lack of efforts to reintegrate them. The feeling of powerlessness in the face of global armed conflicts was frequently expressed in the discussion rounds.
In addition to the change in gender constructions before and after wars, the women also brought psychological components into the discussion: What do war traumas do to subsequent generations? What traces do they leave in the cultural memory? These and other questions had to remain unanswered.
The need to contribute to peace on a small scale was emphasised, from day-to-day actions to peaceful communication and support for refugees affected by war.
NON-VIOLENT COMMUNICATION, CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Eight different interactive workshops then continued aspects of peace in practice. In the workshops organised by Katharina Wojtulek and Alessa Koch, participants were able to engage in creative discussions about peace. Franziska Kuhn and Miriam Kaiser (State Centre for Political Education) shed light on aspects of peace education in practice. Wiltrud Rösch-Metzler (Pax Christi) offered input and exchange on compulsory military service in Germany and Prof. Dr Kathrin Hänel emphasised female self-care as a contribution to peace. The women took part in training sessions on conflict management (Angelika Höhnlinger, Mediation Likom GmbH) and non-violent communication (Waltraud Kieß-Haag).
The Global Ethic Foundation’s “Religion? All you can ask!” provided a space for dialogue about Judaism and Islam. The contributions of Jewish-Muslim dialogue to peaceful coexistence were positively highlighted.
CONSTRUCTIVE EXCHANGE WITH HOPE
Finally, Monika Renninger (Protestant Education Centre Hospitalhof Stuttgart) led the way to the closing plenary: The women recited prayers and blessings from Christian, Islamic (Yasemin Kurt, Society for Dialogue) and Jewish traditions (Susanne Jakubowski, Jewish Religious Community Württemberg).They prayed for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East and advocated living together in trust, sincerity and reconciliation.The diversity of the participants present emphasised the strength-giving effect of the different cultural and religious traditions and showed resistance to all forms of violence.The meeting day thus offered a space for peace and constructive exchange with numerous hopeful moments.
A co-operation of
- The Global Ethic Foundation
- Bahá’í Community Stuttgart
- Protestant Education Centre Hospitalhof Stuttgart
- Protestant Women in Württemberg
- Women’s Department, Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart
- Jewish Religious Community Württemberg
- Society for Dialogue Baden-Württemberg e.V.
- House of Abraham
- Catholic Education Centre Stuttgart
- Catholic German Women’s Association
- StuFem – Stuttgarter Femina e.V.
Interfaith and society
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