TEHRAN The first congress on "Women, Sports and Dialogue Among Civilizations" will start today at the Foreign Ministry's International Assemblies Organization.

Sponsored by the Department for Women's Sports Affairs, Center for Women's Participation and Schoolgirls' Physical Education Department, the two-day congress aims to prepare the ground for exchange of views on sports and status of women in dialogue among religions and civilizations, IRNA reported.

Five main topics of "Women, Sports and Religion", "Women, Sports and Development", "Women, Sports and Culture", "Women, Sports and Global Peace" and "Women, Sports and the Environment" will be discussed in the congress.

The secretariat of the congress has so far received 80 articles on the five topics out of which 13 papers are to be discussed.