{"id":6586,"date":"2014-08-11T12:23:18","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T16:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/?p=6586"},"modified":"2014-08-11T12:23:36","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T16:23:36","slug":"iranian-women-bring-islamic-insights-to-spi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2014\/08\/iranian-women-bring-islamic-insights-to-spi\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian Women Bring Islamic Insights to SPI"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"IranianWomen\"<\/a>
Sabereh Ahmadi Movaghar, the chador-wearing woman in the second row on right, was one of nine Iranian women from an Islamic seminary who took classes with people from all over the world at SPI 2014. This photo shows those enrolled in \u201cLeadership for Healthy Organizations.\u201d (Photo by Kara Lofton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In more than 20 years <\/strong>of participating in interfaith dialogue, guest lecturer Dr. Mohammad Shomali<\/b> has travelled widely. He is the director of international affairs at Jami\u2019at al-Zahra, a Shi\u2019a Islam seminary for women, as well as director of the International Institute for Islamic Studies (IIIS). He resides in Qom, Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel at home in many places in the world,\u201d Shomali said, \u201cbut Eastern Mennonite University is one of those places where I really feel at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peace and peacebuilding, along with interfaith dialogue, is one of the core Quranic principles, Shomali says. This was one reason why nine female seminarians from Jami\u2019at al-Zahra studied at SPI this summer, escorted by Shomali and his wife, Mahnaz Heidarpour, who also teaches at the seminary. In prior years, SPI has hosted a total of 10 students from Iran, but never a group of this size all at once.<\/p>\n

Interactions with SPI students from around the world provide a practical complement to required seminary coursework in comparative peace studies, Shomali said. \u201cTheoretical knowledge can come through books, but when the students eat and talk together and go to churches, this is different. They learn about the way people think, live, behave, and plan. This is very valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Iranian women praised the interactive style of teaching at SPI, where lengthy lectures are rare and role-playing is common.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do lots of exercises, many projects, in this class,\u201d said Sabereh Ahmadi Movaghar<\/b>, referring to \u201cLeadership for Healthy Organizations\u201d taught as a seven-day intensive by David Brubaker<\/b>, PhD, and Roxann \u201cRoxy\u201d Allen Kioko<\/b> \u201904, MA \u201907. She also took \u201cFaith-based Peacebuilding,\u201d taught by Roy Hange<\/b>, a Mennonite scholar and pastor.<\/p>\n

Movaghar\u2019s home institution, Jamiat al-Zahra, is the world\u2019s largest Islamic seminary for women, with 5,000 Iranian students, 1,000 international students and 10,000 enrolled in distance learning. The nine students at SPI are all linked to the postgraduate section of the seminary\u2019s international department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese women are excellent, diligent students,\u201d said J. Daryl Byler<\/b>, executive director of EMU\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. \u201cThey are devoutly religious as well as delightful \u2013 with great personalities, warm laughs, and deep insights. The friendships being built are priceless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shomali told an EMU reporter that he hoped for better relations between the people of Iran and people of the United States and noted\u00a0similarities between Quranic and Christian teachings about the importance of peace. \u201cGod says about the Quran in the Quran itself that God guides with the Quran those who seek His pleasure to the ways of peace (5:15).\u201d There are \u201clots of things we can learn from each other,\u201d he added. Iranians are rational people and \u201cwhen you are rational, you tend to dialogue with people of other faiths and other cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shomali welcomed more exchanges of Americans and Iranians from a variety of fields, including artists and professionals.\u00a0He said that to reduce mutual misperceptions and encourage peace,\u00a0\u201cNothing can replace face-to-face encounters. Our first Imam, Imam Ali, is quoted as saying: \u2018People become hostile towards what they don\u2019t know.\u2019\u201d
\n\u2014 Lauren Jefferson and Bonnie Price Lofton<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In more than 20 years of participating in interfaith dialogue, guest lecturer Dr. Mohammad Shomali has travelled widely. He is the director of international affairs… Read more about Iranian Women Bring Islamic Insights to SPI<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":6587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1073],"tags":[901,752,1212,1137,1209,1211,1031,1210,625],"issues":[1172],"class_list":["post-6586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-david-brubaker","tag-iran","tag-islam","tag-j-daryl-byler","tag-mohammad-shomali","tag-roxann-allen-kioko","tag-roy-hange","tag-sabereh-ahmadi-movaghar","tag-summer-peacebuilding-institute","issues-spring-summer-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6586"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6589,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6586\/revisions\/6589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6586"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=6586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}