{"id":19873,"date":"2014-04-16T10:14:12","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T14:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=19873"},"modified":"2014-05-06T12:32:23","modified_gmt":"2014-05-06T16:32:23","slug":"iranian-women-scholars-to-study-at-summer-peacebuilding-institute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/iranian-women-scholars-to-study-at-summer-peacebuilding-institute\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian women scholars to study at Summer Peacebuilding Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ten Iranian women from the world\u2019s largest Shi\u2019a Islam seminary will attend Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emu.edu\/cjp\/spi\/\">Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI)<\/a> for three weeks in May. Their arrival will mark the first visit to the United States by female scholars from the seminary, Jami\u2019at al-Zahra in Qom, Iran.<\/p>\n<p>The ten women\u2014doctoral students at the seminary\u2014will join 130 international students on the campus of Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in Harrisonburg, Va., to learn concepts and practices of peacebuilding, conflict analysis and resolution and restorative justice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur goal is to train Iranian women seminarians to become ambassadors of friendship and voices for unity and dialogue,\u201d says Dr. Mohammad Shomali, the director of international affairs at Jami\u2019at al-Zahra who will escort the group.<\/p>\n<p>The students are being co-hosted by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emu.edu\/cjp\/\">EMU\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding<\/a> as well as its Center for Interfaith Engagement. They will also visit Amish and Mennonite communities in Lancaster Co., Pa., and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elhibrifoundation.org\/\">El-Hibri Foundation<\/a> in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p>Since 1994, SPI has attracted more than 2,700 students of diverse faiths from 120 countries for academic instruction and cultural exchange. More than 90 percent of former students work in peacebuilding-related disciplines, including <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emu.edu\/peacebuilding\/leymah-gbowee\/\">2011 Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee<\/a>, of Liberia.<\/p>\n<p>Ten Iranian students have attended SPI, and two have continued their studies to earn master\u2019s degrees in conflict transformation.<\/p>\n<p>However, hosting a large group of accomplished women scholars is \u201ca rare opportunity,\u201d says <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emu.edu\/personnel\/people\/show\/jb459\">J. Daryl Byler<\/a>, executive director of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU. \u201cThis is a unique step in our long history of interfaith dialogue. We look forward to the theological and cultural insights they will bring.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Shomali has previously led two groups of women in 2011 and 2012 to study Anabaptist and Christian theology at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Manitoba.<\/p>\n<p>The academic exchanges build on more than 20 years of Mennonite-Shi\u2019a interfaith dialogue fostered by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcc.org\/\">Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)<\/a>, a partial sponsor of the upcoming trip. MCC first reached out to Iran after a devastating earthquake in 1990, offering relief supplies in partnership with the Iranian Red Crescent Society. The organization\u2019s outreach has since focused on \u201cunderstanding, friendship, and interfaith connections between the people of Iran, Canada, and the U.S.,\u201d as well as \u201cpeacebuilding through shared knowledge,\u201d according to a press release.<\/p>\n<p>Major funding has been provided by\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emu.edu\/interfaith\/\">Center for Interfaith Engagement at EMU<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ten Iranian women from the world\u2019s largest Shi\u2019a Islam seminary will attend Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) for three weeks in May. Their arrival will mark the first <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/iranian-women-scholars-to-study-at-summer-peacebuilding-institute\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Iranian women scholars to study at Summer Peacebuilding Institute<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":19874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4515,12503,264],"tags":[17242,10545,15416,10067,6100],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-19873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-cjp","category-graduate-programs","tag-center-for-interfaith-engagement","tag-daryl-byler","tag-el-hibri-foundation","tag-leymah-gbowee","tag-mennonite-central-committee"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Iranian women scholars to study at Summer Peacebuilding Institute - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/iranian-women-scholars-to-study-at-summer-peacebuilding-institute\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iranian women scholars to study at Summer Peacebuilding Institute - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ten Iranian women from the world\u2019s largest Shi\u2019a Islam seminary will attend Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) for three weeks in May. 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