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The phrase "You strike a woman you strike a rock", has come to represent the strength of women in South Africa. On August 9th in 1956, when the apartheid regime legislated that all persons of African descent must carry special passes around with them, women petitioned against this law by marching to the union buildings in the country's capital, Pretoria. They stood outside the buildings in silence, many of them carrying their own children or those of the white family's they worked for. They then began singing Wathint'Abafazi Wathint'imbokodo! (Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock.)

There is something graceful and noble about the pictures one sees of the time. Although it was a march or a protest, it was done with the dignity and poise that we mostly see from women. When women protest, they don't hurl rocks and they don't burn icons. They demand your respect by giving you respect. This is a quality that our society does not nurture. We live in a world that is constantly nurturing and feeding our lower or baser nature. We may learn the theory of virtues and principles, but in our societal realities, we are constantly encouraged to bend our principles and beliefs in order to achieve goals. You need only watch an episode of RUNNING IN HEELS to witness a typical professional environment that is outwardly female, but loaded with the same "male" outlook which believes that in order to excel, you have to make others look bad, stab them in the back and hold them back from progressing.

The idea of protest is in itself problematic. It's a feature of our current order and a "necessary evil", as long as our societal paradigm is based on fundamental disunity. Its aim is to make a statement, raise awareness and create leverage against those who abuse power. But the problem starts with our understanding of power. We think of it in terms of control; the control of resources. And therefore we think of (and manifest) power as potentially abusive. So by default we need to leverage that power through counter-power and that's how we get social protest or opposition. But really protest buys into the same black and white notion of right and wrong, winners and losers as it claims to defy and it limits the diverse and complex nature of reality. It also means that those with the most sticks and stones will have their way. After all a simple strike can become a threatening situation. Your are essentially threatening and pressuring a person/party into a specific action. How is this really different from the nature of the oppression you're trying to undo?

I believe that if there were more of a female voice in the way the world works, we would see a transformation in the entire paradigm that our world operates on. Women have a much more inclusive view of things. They naturally see themselves and the world as an organic entity. Women are the heart of any family, village and society.

Our role far exceeds that of marching and protesting (even if it is peacefully). We have the ability to nurture other ways of transforming society. If we raise and foster families and societies that put justice, unity and cooperation in the forefront of their agenda, we won't find ourselves in a situation where ruthless oppression – the likes of which we see in many nations right now - must be confronted with another, perhaps socially more acceptable form of oppression.

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Women's day is a day to celebrate and explore the true and unique potential of women around the world. We have come a long way. Let's not be satisfied and let's keep walking. I know that the idiom of the woman as a rock refers to our strength. We are strong and determined as a rock. Steadfast as rock. And that is beautiful and right. But let's also look at the smoothness and softness of a rock that is slapped by the waves and toned to perfection. What can that tenderness teach us (and teach MEN) about life and existence?

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Austria is not Australia, Persian is not Arabic and Palestinians are also semites. Did you know? These things matter to some degree of course, but then do they really? Is my culture a skin color? A custom? A language? All of those? None of those? What about the anomalies in our cultures? The albinos? Or those who don't perform the customs; or those that don't speak their language? While there are many things I don't know about how culture is defined and why it's used to make some people feel better than others, there are some things I do know.

Culture is really only alive and truly beautiful in the context of diversity. I went to an intercultural, interracial, interreligious wedding last week and I sat and watched the bride perform the usual Persian cake cutting custom that I've seen so many times at Persian weddings. And most of my life I've found this custom to be silly and embarrassing. This time it was fun and special. And the reason, I found, was that because of the various cultures that framed the wedding, it stood out and went from being ordinary (in an all-Persian setting) to being extra-ordinary! Same for the African dances that followed.

There is something about diversity that makes us each special and beautiful. I've always felt this. In mono-cultural settings I always feel like a fish out of water. In multi-cultural settings I feel so at home! And the simplest metaphor is the garden metaphor. If every flower in a garden is red, it's no longer special. When each flower has its own unique color, shape and scent, each one stands out and mesmerizes. And oh how beautiful when two different flowers give birth to a whole new kind...

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A lot of African nations have been very diplomatic in their attitude towards Robert Mugabe, holding off on any direct criticism. The South African president, Thabo Mbeki, is one of those politicians whose stance has been to respect Zimbabwe's independence. Let them figure it out themselves. Change has to come from within. Zimbabwe is a sovereign nation.

But what is the meaning of sovereignty when that sovereignty starts jeopardizing the sovereignty of others? That – in effect – is what the highly controversial South African politician Jacob Zuma asked the world just last week. In other words it's okay to ignore Mugabe's silent strangulation of his own people, it's not our business after all (so seem to think many). But if that strangulation starts to affect us South Africans, then it sure is our business!

And it's been affecting us for a long time now. Zimbabweans in South Africa make up the highest number of immigrants. They'd rather risk being burned alive by angry xenophobic mobs in Johannesburg than stay in Zimbabwe. They're affecting our social structures, our human rights situation and our economy. Zimbabwe's political "exhaust" is polluting our "environment" and that is really no big surprise.

Because if, as human beings, we are all indeed the cells of one body, as I have argued poetically for so long, then our "rights" and "freedoms", our "sovereignty" - as unique and important as we may be – may all be valuable, but should be subject to the greater good. In other words, Zimbabwe's interests should come second to the interests of the world at large. And so should the interests of any group or nation. The notion of "sovereignty" is null and void if that sovereignty becomes a cancer that threatens to kill the body at large. And which cancer doesn't eventually spread? The wellbeing of the whole should be the first and foremost goal of every just nation (or society, or family or...). At the moment, it is the goal of no nation.

And that is the paradigm shift we so sorely need. While 19th century scientists promoted the notion of "the survival of the fittest", an adversarial notion of exclusivity, 21st century scientists and Baha'u'llah's revelation point to the survival of the human race depending on its very unity – a mutualistic, inclusive notion. And this is not only a pretty, happy-clappy and sweet paradigm, it is the only way forward for a world that is crumbling at its foundations.

Beyond our social, economic and political interdependence, the environment, shamelessly borderless and honest, is teaching us that our short-sighted and selfish exploitation of mother earth is coming back to bite us hard. And persisting on our own sovereignty as though we were isolated entities, is going to do the very same.