Short Summary: What measures are needed to enable feminists from different cultural contexts to work together? This paper argues that there is a need for Western feminism to truly understand and incorporate both cultural diversity and correspondingly diverse strategies for empowerment and liberation. Struggles for gender equality will vary according to the shifting faces of patriarchal systems and importantly, to other socio-cultural factors such as colonialism, racism and economics. Western feminism must cease to focus on the ‘passivity’ of Muslim women and must instead recognise and examine their significant activity in the public sphere – a good example being the role of women in the Palestinian Intifada. The paper points to the need for a more engaged cross-cultural dialogue through which Western feminism acknowledges its own positioning within the cultural context of Christian capitalism, and through which Arab women are able to influence the international or transnational feminist agenda. The paper also outlines the need for establishing connections between local and global activism and peacemaking. ‘The ultimate challenge for feminist movements is providing new ways of linking the particulars of women’s lives, activities and goals’. For copies of this publication, please contact: IWSAW, e-mail:iwsaw@lau. edu.lb, Tel.: +961-1-786456, Fax: +961-1-791645.