Last week, I had the privilege of attending A Common World Amongst Youth forum in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, an experience that has stayed with me.
Walking into a room of young people from across the world, each carrying the weight of their own country’s complexities, I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I found was something I hadn’t anticipated: an extraordinary amount of common ground.
Sitting with Discomfort
The conversations at the Forum were not always easy. We tackled questions that many public forums shy away from, what it means to live and practise faith in societies shaped by religious tension, how communities carve out shared spaces when division feels more natural than dialogue, and what it genuinely looks like when people choose understanding over retreat.
These are the kinds of conversations that can feel risky. But they are also the ones that matter most.
Hearing how different countries approach these challenges such grassroots interfaith initiatives built quietly from the ground up or art displays that portray the lived realities of the region was genuinely eye-opening
The Humility of Listening
One of the most lasting lessons from Tashkent was a simple one: you cannot learn while you are talking.
There is something quietly humbling about sitting with people whose lives look nothing like yours and realising, slowly, how much your picture of the world has been incomplete. That kind of humility is not comfortable. But it is, I think, where real dialogue begins.
If the Forum taught me anything, it is that bridge-building does not start with grand gestures. It starts with the willingness to sit in discomfort together to stay in the room when the questions get hard.
Gratitude
None of this would have been possible without the Avicenna Scholarship, and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity it has given me to engage with the world beyond my immediate horizon. I also want to acknowledge the ACWAY trustees, whose own journeys into interfaith work were a quiet reminder of why this kind of dialogue matters and why it is worth dedicating oneself to.
I am returning home with more questions than answers. But I am also returning with new perspectives, new connections, and a deeper appreciation for the work that still lies ahead.
