Women Academics From Egypt

"He is seen as a religious leader who articulates the moral responsibilities and even clarifies what needs to be done in order to heal communities and to prevent conflict,” said Prof. Karam. “So, his role will continue to be to map out the how and why of resolving and avoiding conflicts, including of living more peacefully with ourselves as people of faith."

"Our power is measured not in our ability to have the most mighty armies, our power as humanity is measured in our ability to standing defense of the most vulnerable among us, that includes our planet."

"...when our humanity is dignified, our humanity collectively is saved. Let us safeguard the dignity of our humanity and the dignity of this earth. Let us please commit, to standing in solidarity with the dignity of one another, to speaking up in defense of those are defenseless to defending those who are most vulnerable."

"Let us learn from one another. Let us learn to be humble servants to one another. Let us learn to stand in defense of our humanity, let us learn to stand in defense of our dignity, humanity, not only one community, not only one race, or not only one ethnicity."

"COVID-19 hurts our lungs. It attacks our lungs and makes it very difficult to breathe, and many have died, unable to breathe. This is one of the sufferings what our planet is suffering. As we cut the trees, as we undertake different nuclear experience, as we fight one another, we hurt the planet. And when we hurt the planet, we will have nowhere to go. That won’t be beautiful, and as one addresses as the planet, we live on."

"...we don’t need to go outside to learn, if we come together in our diversity, institution diversity, religious diversity, cultural diversity, national diversity, social diversity, cultural diversity, if we come together in our diversity, all the knowledge we need is within, is between us"

"There is not a single faith, tradition anywhere in the world. That says, two men, you can live on your own, and the hell with everybody else. There is not a single faith, tradition that tells human beings they must be in isolation from one another, that they must be only like, and do work with those we like, and work for those we like. In fact, all faiths, traditions, have many similar messages. The most fundamental message of our faith, tradition, is we are all connected, that we hurt one, we hurt all. There are many examples of you. Yourself, in your venerable organizations, institutions have to bring to the table to learn from one another."

"There are moral imperative, social imperative, and healthy imperative, indeed cultural, financial, military imperative for us to work together. All religions have much to teach, and we will be humble, we should be humble in understanding that we have to learn from one another that the main and most important lesson of survival is inter respect and interdependence we have."

"The best scientific evidence shows, that one tree is killed, the forest can be endangered. The best scientific evidence shows with COVID-19, that one person is infected, and the entire nation can become a hostage. This is an important lesson for all of us. In case some of us are still doubting the value of working together, let COVID-19 be a lesson that we can afford. We cannot afford to not work together. We must."

"China is a nation with one of the greatest, longest civilizations in history. China is a nation that continues to teach the world many things. It is important, one of our important lessons is that we learn, that we teach, that we believe, is collaboration."

"Cooperation, collaboration, are not options. They are necessities for us to survive. Unfortunately, there are still many people who feel or believe that their nations or communities could survive at expense of everyone else. The truth, however, is we are growing, even with globalization, even with technology, even with wealth, we are growing dependent, not less dependent, more dependent on one another, economically, socially, politically, culturally."

"I think that we need to be focused on realizing that religious leaders of major religious institutions of all religions around the world are the ones who expressed and signaled their readiness to accept a woman as a leader of their joint collaborative effort and commitment towards building peace."

"Political leadership and religious leadership have to be seen as unique and distinct, when there is too much of an overlap between the political institutions and the religious institutions, it doesn’t become so much about faith anymore for the religious—it becomes more about power politics."

"There are many religions and many, many religious people. The number of those within those groups who are speaking out against the scientific evidence is relatively small. If we look at the broad group of religious institutions, whether Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and so on, we realize a large majority is actually calling for a scientific perspective regarding vaccines. There’s a great deal of thought that taking vaccines is actually almost a religious obligation. We just have to keep advocating"

"We have to remember that every religious leader in Afghanistan is not part of the Taliban. There are religious minority leaders and communities. We have to look at all of that rich tapestry of religious context in the singular. We have to be more discerning about society, politics and about the different religions coexisting."

"We are living in an age where religion, religious leaders, religious ideologies, are playing an important political, social, cultural and even economic role. I’m not just talking about the spiritual space here. I’m talking very practically, about the political and the financial space. In Afghanistan, we have to appreciate how complicated the situation is."

"As a person who is constantly wondering and seeking, it helps to build a certain sense — not so much of fatalism, but of preparedness, of understanding that things are going to be difficult before they get easier. One of the things I’ve learned in my life, and I’m now in my mid-50s, is that there is joy in service. This belief in service is a great source of encouragement and energy that I sometimes tap into."

"As an Egyptian Muslim woman growing up in a very conservative family, it would feel like whatever I did, it was not good enough. That meant I had to work harder, longer, more. The social conditions helped put me in a place where, yes, you have to hit the ground running. If you don’t, you’ll fall flat on your face."

"I am not serving as a woman or a Muslim, but there has been a remarkable flow of goodwill and a wiliness to work together, whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Buddhist, Jewish or Hindu."

"I have thought about it, even if that’s because it would be impossible for me not to see many things from a woman’s point of view, with a woman’s sensibilities. I also think there are things I could do as a Muslim. In my acceptance speech I reached out to Muslim leaders to join the Religions for Peace and there was an immediate positive reaction and many came on board as members of the World Council, our governing board."

"All too rarely do these two cooperate at national or global level. I see great value in strengthening the ability of religious organisations to be a better partner of secular civil society organisations. But I also see the great value religious actors can bring. If we can build bridges between these two, we will have a much stronger civil society in the future"

"In the future, I want us to work against gang violence in Latin America, and with issues related to indigenous peoples and slavery. These are areas where Religions for Peace must do something. Because therein are the deepest wounds of many people today."

"...the role of civil society is not only about providing the service that governments do not provide, but also about defending and nurturing the principles of human rights and democracy that we are convinced make us human. Principles that make us safe and help us protect our climate."

"Imagine the grace that can happen when you genuinely challenge what you hold to be dear and true. And it’s particularly in times of crisis that we listen even less well, because we are worried."

"This is about both the danger to and the opportunity for the very essence of who we think we are, if we were to genuinely listen to one another. It may dramatically challenge us, because we think we know ourselves so well. We think we hear and we listen, but we actually do not. We are constantly walking this very thin line in life and in danger of falling off. If you do fall off, you would completely lose your certainty, but at the same time, imagine what you might find if you fall off."

"To actually stand shoulder to shoulder. And at the same time, I feel enormous pressure from the thought of, ‘Oh my god, how can we honour that? How on earth can a staff of fifteen people honour 100 religious leaders and their institutions and their networks who are willing to, and do in fact, commit their time, their effort, their money, their everything, to serving?"

"One of the most beautiful things I am learning is that I am honestly constantly amazed by the willingness of our religious leaders, who represent these different institutions. There are over 100 religious leaders who all come from different faith traditions, including indigenous ones. I am really deeply touched and hugely moved by how willing these people are to devote time to being part of this movement, this effort, this dream of religions for peace."

"I saw this so clearly when I worked for the UN (United Nations). Religious leaders were all prepared to speak about the environment and children’s rights and promoting equality generally for all people and refugees. But if you bring up sex, sexuality, sexual identity, sexual relations. Ooh la la, no way."

"Religious institutions in particular are not prepared to negotiate on sex and sexuality, because once you start looking at how these norms are built up from sexual relations and sexual identity all the way up to leadership, you begin to question that foundation, that authority, and even the primacy of that institution. This means that no religious institution is willing to discuss sex and sexuality in any open way."

"Sex is for procreation, nothing else. God forbid you should even think of enjoyment."

"Gender is very often intimately connected to sexuality – who we believe we are, how we feel and see and use our bodies. For this reason, almost all faith traditions have an opinion on the matter. The more institutionalised the religion, the more dominant the framework of gender, sex and patriarchy."

"The Netherlands was the perfect environment for me to learn and eventually to strike out on my own. I didn’t really have a choice about coming to the Netherlands, because my father was posted to the Egyptian Embassy in The Hague. And as a good Muslim daughter, who really didn’t have much say in what happened to her, I was transplanted from Egypt. To be honest, I didn’t want to go at the time, but my family insisted."

"The religious common ground to all faith traditions is that human life is sacred. And the most vulnerable amongst us are the ones that deserve the most from each of us."

"I feel that the more challenges I have, the more I have energy to tackle the problem”"

"Although women have more opportunities available to them now than in the past, there is still implicit bias, and constant need to fight for equality. Women need support from men and women to break the glass ceiling that still exists."

"The truth is, women in research and science encounter more hardship compared to their male counterparts."

"But never think that you cannot do it because you’re a woman. Don’t hold yourself back.”"

"The biggest obstacle is balancing work and a personal life, especially with young kids at an early stage of my career"

"I go through the steps one by one, no matter how long it takes. It's like running a race with them, and you're out of breath sometimes, but it's worth it when we make it to the finish line"

"Let's be honest: The best science students are going to learn anyhow. They don't need to be pushed. I prefer to teach students who hate physics. I tell them not to be intimidated. They can all do it once the fear is removed.""

"I enjoy working with undergraduates and find nothing more rewarding than seeing a student understand who was having a hard time"

"Our students would not accept it if we stood still; we would lose them. I learn students’ names and encourage them to participate. I ask for volunteers to go to the blackboard. The first time, girls especially will say, 'I have never been to the blackboard.' I say, ‘Come with me, don't worry; help me.'”"

"young women presenters there, both engineers and scientists, all very active in their field. I was intrigued by that, by their level of interest."

": it’s a wonderful way to show both the impact of women researchers, to showcase key trends in renewable energy research developed and led by women from around the world.”"

"“for having these leaders in science, research and technology share their experiences, the challenges and obstacles and how they handled them"

"in-tandem roundtable discussion will inspire the upcoming generation of women scientists, by sharing knowledge and experience."

"My role at the National Science Foundation gave me an eagle eye’s view of all areas of materials research, and renewable energy was a very important part of that"

"“It’s good to make the younger generation aware that the changes that they are seeing now are the result of struggles of many women to circumvent obstacles and try to forge a new road"

"Having a look from my computer at the face of King Amenhotep I, as the first person in 3,000 years to see his face, was really a moment of joy. I considered it a blessing."

"They not only kept the amulets that were there, they added more. It reflects the noble aim of the priests, how they lovingly took care of the older kings"