Equality and mutual respect are important building blocks of intercultural dialogue and essential to remove the barriers to its realisation. Where progress towards equality is lacking, social tensions may manifest themselves in the cultural arena, even if the root causes lie elsewhere, and cultural identities themselves may be used to stigmatise. 3.4.3
Gender equality
Equality between women and men is a core issue in changing societies, as the 5th European Ministerial Conference on Equality between Women and Men (2003) emphasised. It is a crucial element of democracy. Gender equality is an integral part of human rights and sex-based discrimination is an impediment to the enjoyment of human rights and freedoms. Respect for women’s human rights is a non-negotiable foundation of any discussion of cultural diversity. The fight against gender inequality should not give rise to insidious stereotyping, however. It is important to stress the illegitimacy of coded equations between “minority communities” and “gender inequality”, as if all in the “host” community was perfect and as if everything related to minorities and adherents to particular religions was problematic. Common gender experiences can overlap communal divides precisely because no community has a monopoly of gender equality or inequality. Gender equality injects a positive dimension into intercultural dialogue. The complexity of individual identity allows solidarities inconceivable within a stereotyped, communalist perspective. The very fact that gender inequality is a cross-cutting issue means that intercultural projects engaging women from “minority” and “host” backgrounds may be able to build upon shared experiences. The Council of Europe’s Revised Strategy on Social Cohesion makes clear that equality between women and men is a fundamental and highly relevant commitment. It urges a “gender mainstreaming perspective” in the arena of social cohesion, and in intercultural dialogue this should equally be present throughout. 3.4.4
Combating the barriers that prevent intercultural dialogue
There are many barriers to intercultural dialogue. Some of these are the result of the difficulty in communicating in several languages. But others concern power and politics: discrimination, poverty and exploitation – experiences which often bear particularly heavily on persons belonging to disadvantaged and marginalised groups – are structural barriers to dialogue. In many European societies one also finds groups and political organisations preaching hatred of “the other”, “the foreigner” or certain religious identities. Racism, xenophobia, intolerance and all other forms of discrimination refuse the very idea of dialogue and represent a standing affront to it. 21