It is emphasized that religions have potential to promote gender equality if their interpretations are inclusive and universalistic during the seminar on gender equality held in Mostar on <strong>February 09, 2017</strong>. IMIC Center Zajedno, TPO Foundation and Youth Forum Mostar with the support of Ecumenical Woman’s Initiative gathered students and teachers from <strong>Herzegovina-Neretva Canton</strong> to discuss gender, gender theories and gender identities themes from the perspective of science and religious tradition of Christianity and Islam.
Professor Zilka Spahić Šiljak informed the participants with four basic theories on gender development: psychoanalytical, theory of social learning, cognitive theory, theory of gender scheme, and after that she talked about the two prevailing idealized gender cosmogonies: patriarchal and egalitarian cosmogonies. On of these cosmogonies marked the lives of women and men depending on what one wanted to inscribe into the Islamic tradition.
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Božana Katava-Ivelić MA, focused her presentation on Biblical anthropology of women that was informed by Greek philosophy, and in particular by Aristotle’s s conception on reproduction and multiplying. In this way participants could recognize how stereotypical image of male and female nature is built and how stereotypes affect gender equality in family and society.
