Sacred Words, Secular Policies: Cross-Cultural Analysis of Metaphor and Discursive Strategies of Gender Representation in Arabic-Italian Discourses

Objective

DECODE – Sacred Words, Secular Policies investigates how Arabic- and Italian-language public and institutional discourses—especially those drawing on Islamic and Catholic references—use metaphor and other discursive strategies to frame gender and shape (or clash with) gender-equality policies. Pairing parallel institutional voices (e.g., Al-Azhar/Vatican) and shared value vocabularies (dignity, honor, protection), the project fills a cross-cultural research gap at the intersection of language, religion, and gender. Methodologically, DECODE builds a 500,000-word bilingual corpus (2015–2025) and applies an integrated CMT (Conceptual Metaphor Theory) – MIPVU (Metaphor Identification Procedure, VU University) – CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis) pipeline with rigorous inter-annotator reliability, producing an open, FAIR-compliant dataset, a transferable comparative framework, and a taxonomy of gendered metaphors. Preliminary patterns suggest that “dignity” is framed in Arabic discourse as a “precious object requiring protection” versus an “inherent right requiring recognition” in Italian discourse—differences with direct policy implications. Hosted by Ca’ Foscari University (return phase) with an outgoing phase at the University of Toronto, the fellowship couples linguistic analysis with religious-studies expertise to ensure cultural-theological accuracy. Expected outcomes include peer-reviewed publications, an annotated bilingual corpus, open methods and code, and a policy brief disseminated to European and national equality bodies, advancing evidence-based, culturally sensitive gender communication aligned with EU open-science and impact priorities.