Local, international and virtual communities with links to different religious traditions took part in this second edition of the conference, which focused on “Communities as agents of change”. The conference also featured a lecture by scholar amina wadud.
The second Fe(r) i dones conference (#FeRiDones) was organised by the Religious Affairs Office (OAR) in collaboration with the Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Pedralbes. It took place between 29 June and 6 July 2022, at different locations within the city of Barcelona, and was curated by Jenabou Dembaga Susoko and Montse Castellà i Olivé.
The opening event was held on 29 June at the Centre for Community Life in Trinitat Vella. Laura Pérez, Deputy Mayor for Social Rights, Global Justice, Feminisms and LGBTI at Barcelona City Council, and Khalid Ghali, Commissioner for Intercultural Dialogue and Religious Pluralism, were both present, and spoke at the event. On this occasion, the focus was on the local communities that participated in the reflection circles “Women’s communities: past, present and future”. They all enriched debates that highlighted the wealth of religious pluralism in the city of Barcelona, as well as common experiences and desires. You can watch a short video of the presentation by the communities taking part here (in Spanish and Catalan). More details of the contributions made to the debates and the conclusions drawn by the three moderators, Cristina Monteys, Anna Gil-Bardagí and Rosa Martínez-Cuadros, will soon be available on the OAR website. You can view the images here.
Over the following days, two local communities opened their doors to the public, offering workshops to raise awareness of their work. The Sisterhood programme of the evangelical Hillsong Church organised the workshop “How can we take care of each other?” (1 July), welcoming the public to their offices and providing insight into their meetings, tasks, initiatives, and objectives, and how these are realised on the ground within the framework of a women’s church group. The Sakyadhita Spain International Association of Buddhist Women organised the workshop “The demons that constrain us and the paths that set us free” (2 July) at the Casa d’Espiritualitat Sant Felip Neri where they usually hold their meetings. Participants were able to learn about, and put into practice, the teachings of the 12th century Buddhist teacher Machig Labdrön, under the guidance of Lama Rigdzin Yudrön. You can view the images here and here.
The Monastery of Pedralbes also opened its doors to the public during the conference. On 30 June and 3 July there were two guided visits, entitled “Pedralbes, a stage for female power”, opening a window onto a space where women lived together as a community for 700 years. In particular, the tour focused on the figures of six notably powerful women who lived there at different points in its history.
Another of the conference settings was the virtual world, virtual communities. Today, social networks make it possible to create communities, and to mobilise large numbers of people. There are many women believers and religious leaders who form virtual communities that are transformative, creating content and reflecting on a wide range of issues. One of the two curators of the conference, Jenabou Dembaga, conducted two live interviews/conversations via Instagram with two of these leading figures: Chaimaa Boukharsa (@chaimaaboukharsa), Muslim, feminist, activist and content creator Elisa Fernanda Barreto (@nolatipicafeminista), founder of “No la típica feminista”, a digital community that seeks to develop a personalised form of feminism within the framework of the Catholic faith. You can watch the interviews via their Instagram accounts and also here or here (in spanish)
The main speaker on the closing day (6 July) was scholar, doctor and imam amina wadud, a world leader in Islamic feminism. The lecture “We walk this path: Islam, gender, sexuality and justice” provided an insight into her own life and spiritual and intellectual trajectory, as well as sharing her reflections on the issues of feminism, gender and justice in Muslim majority societies. You can watch her lecture here (in Catalan).
What’s more, we had the opportunity to connect with communities of women from all over the world from a diversity of religious traditions. Through our online connection we were able to listen to the round table discussion “Inspiring Communities” with contributions from the Drukpa Kung Fu Nuns, the Community of Wise Indigenous Women Theologians of Abya Yala (COSTIAY), the Sisters in Islam (SIS) organisation and the Catholic Women’s Council (CWC) (Women’s Synod). Their diverse experiences and the work they do were deeply inspiring for the attendees. You can see the video of the discussion here (in Spanish).
The conference concluded with the poetry recital “Destil·lacions. Del silenci al silenci”, from Marta Millà (voice), Anna Subirana (sound), Rosa Martí Pujol (staging ), and poems by Montse Castellà, one of the two curators of the conference. The cloister at Monastery of Pedralbes provided an ideal space for living in the present and experiencing the silence, and became the perfect setting for the inspirational first edition of the “Fe(r) i Dones” conference.
You can view images of the closing event here.
View images from the conference:
- Opening ceremony and reflection circles
- Workshop: “How can we take care of each other?”
- Workshop: “The demons that constrain us and the paths that set us free”
- Closing day (lecture from amina wadud, round table discussion and poetry recital)