Directorate of Youth and Sport of Council of
Europe
National training-"Young women participation in inter-religious and intercultural dialogue"
Azerbaijan, Lankaran, 10-15 March, 2009
On 10-15 March, 2009 Azerbaijani-American Youth Social Association/AAYSA has organized national training in Azerbaijan, Lankaran on the theme of "Young women participation in inter-religious and intercultural dialogue" supported by the European Youth Foundation and Directorate of Youth and Sport of Council of Europe. On 11 March, 2009 was the opening ceremony of the training where participated 30 young women from Georgia, Russia, Turkey and local young females from South region of Azerbaijan-Lankaran, Masalli, Astara, Yardimli, Lerik, Salyan which is the South region of Azerbaijan and influenced very highly by Iranian Islamic impact especially on women life. In the opening ceremony chairman of AAYSA Vugar Ahmadov informed the participants about the project which aimed at promoting the role of young women in intercultural and inter-religious dialogue in the region, to actively involve and integrate them into the civil society initiatives, to create a condition for young women to come together, set a contacts among them, to exchange of experience and information. He noted that today both in Azerbaijani south region on the border with Iran and in European countries there are women which are very capable and ready to make changes in community that they live. But it is very important to bring them together where they will have a chance to exchange of experience, raise their concerns and discuss their role in intercultural, inter-religious dialogue and in conflict resolution/peace building process. Precisely by putting this goal and by bringing together young women, training will play an important role in stimulation of active participation of young women in this process. Later on the trainers and experts of the project presented information about the training program and working modules. During the training period the participants participated actively in discussion of the topics of human rights, gender equality, and young women activeness in European continent, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, consolidation of young women efforts against the domestic violence and the role of young women in civil society initiatives. They have also touched upon the recent conflict in the Caucasus and were discussing the role and power of young women in avoiding conflicts and building peace in the region. This meeting played an important role in establishing a platform of discussion and exchange of views on the role of young women in intercultural and inter-religious dialogue. As we know young women in Azerbaijani rural parts are more isolated in terms of European integration and have lack of knowledge about the gender equality and the rights of modern women. The main European dimension of the project was to actively integrate rural young women with international participants and get an access to the wider knowledge and information on how to get opportunity for successful European integration in terms of getting links and cooperation among the young women on gender issues. In the last day of the training as the result of discussions it is decided to establish South Regional women NGO network which will coordinate their meetings and follow up initiatives.
The project result can be considered very successful in terms of sustainability of its activity as the training increased very much the access of participants to the international projects. As the project result achieved the decision to continue the sustainability of the project idea as the mobile young women group and cooperate actively with various feminist and gender organizations based in the country and abroad.
