Message by the President of the “Melody For Dialogue among Civilizations” Association

 

Message by the President of the “Melody For Dialogue among Civilizations” Association Last fall, the world’s leaders convened at the World Summit 2005 to review progress made concerning the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In view of the uneven progress made in eradicating poverty and hunger, enhancing schooling opportunities for girls, reducing maternal and child mortality or arresting the spread of HIV/AIDS, the Summit adopted a broad range of commitments designed to bring about tangible progress. The linkage between development, peace, security and human rights attracted particular attention. The quest for gender equality and gender mainstreaming was – at long last – given a pride of place, relevant for all areas of societal activities. The 2005 UN summit underscored that a full and effective implementation of the goals and objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action and the agreements reached at the Beijing+five session of the UN General Assembly are key parameters in the pursuit of the MDGs. To this end, leaders at the UN Summit resolved to promote gender equality by investing in women’s empowerment in seven critical areas, including closing gender gaps in primary and secondary education; guaranteeing women’s ownership and inheritance rights; ensuring women’s equal access to productive assets and resources, including land, credit and technology; ensuring their equal access to reproductive health, to labor markets, decent employment and labor protection; promoting women’s increased political participation; and eliminating all forms of violence against women and the girl child. They also stressed the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace-building. This looks like an impressive, almost complete agenda – were it not for the omission of the cultural dimension and the role of cultural diversity and cultural heritage in all its aspects. Women in arts and music are a powerful force for a nation’s development and to buttress their role in peace-building and conflict resolution through creative approaches. The linkage between sustainable development and culture has long been established and increasing attention is now, and should be, paid to the role of culture in peace building. Let’s hope that in the near future mention will be made not only of towering men, like Leonardo da Vinci, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, William Shakespeare or Vincent van Gogh, but equally of towering women and women artists who have set milestones of their own through their visual, musical and literary works, thereby bringing about an integral space in a new global society. That long awaited day of full empowerment of women will be, in the words of Maya Angelou – celebrated poet and novelist, artist, activist and indeed renaissance woman – when “a bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song”. It is in this spirit that I hope that the special concert tonight on International Women’s Day will demonstrate to us the power of musical dialogue – without frontiers, without prejudices, without gender barriers. Mme Mehri Madarshahi