Bahá'í Faith and gender equality

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Bahá'í Faith and gender equality refers to the fundamental teaching of the Bahá'í Faith. The teaching states that men and women are equal, and that the equality of the sexes is a spiritual and moral standard that is essential for the unification of the planet and the unfoldment of peace. The Bahá'í teaching notes the importance of implementing the principle in individual, family, and community life. While the Bahá'í teachings assert the full spiritual and social equality of women to men, the notion of equality does not imply sameness and there are some aspects of gender distinctiveness or gender differentiation in certain areas of life.

[edit] Equality

The equality of men and women is a fundamental Bahá'í principle,^[1] that is explicit in the writings of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, and particularly in the writings and discourses of `Abdu'l-Bahá, his son and chosen interpreter.^[1] The teaching and its vision of the community in central to Bahá'í community life as is implemented as a practical level.^[1] The Bahá'í teachings state that neither women are not inferior to men, and should not be subordinate to men in aspects of social life.^[2] In the Bahá'í view, women have always been equal to men, and the reason why women have as of yet not achieved this equality is because of the lack of adequate educational and social opportunities, and that men because of their greater physical strength have prevented women from developing their true potential.^[2]

[edit] Spiritual station

Bahá'u'lláh stated that in the present day, God has removed the distinctions that had previously differentiated the stations of men and women,^[3] and that women and men were equal in the sight of God.^[4] Bahá'u'lláh wrote:

Exalted, immensely exalted is He Who hath removed differences and established harmony...[T]he Pen of the Most High hath lifted distinctions from between His servants and handmaidens and ... hath conferred upon all a station and rank on the same plane.^[1]

Instead of their gender, Bahá'u'lláh wrote that the spiritual station of each person depends on their recognition and devotion to God.^[4] `Abdu'l-Bahá stated that God did not differentiate between people based on gender and that all were made in the image of God. He further stated that both women and men have the same potential for intelligence, virtue and prowess.^[4]

[edit] Advancement of humanity and perquisite to peace

`Abdu'l-Bahá stated that gender equality was not simply righting historical social injustices against women, but would serve as a key factor in wide-ranging societal changes that would help develop a new civilization in which more 'feminine' qualities such as tender-heartedness and receptivity would balance previously dominant 'masculine' forces.<sup>[4]</sup> The Bahá'í writings state that until women are provided equal status to men, humanity cannot advance or progress.<sup>[4]</sup> `Abdu’l-Bahá in a series of analogies has compared men and women to the two wings of a bird and the two hands of a human body and stated that both need to be strong to allow for advancement.^[4] `Abdu'l-Baha wrote:

The world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly. Until womankind reaches the same degree as man, until she enjoys the same arena of activity, extraordinary attainment for humanity will not be realized; humanity cannot wing its way to heights of real attainment. When the two wings or parts become equivalent in strength, enjoying the same prerogatives, the flight of man will be exceedingly lofty and extraordinary.^[5]

Both Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá wrote that an important aspect of world unity will be a greater balance between feminine and masculine influences on society, and stated that because of the greater feminine influence that wars will cease and a permanent peace attained.<sup>[2]</sup> `Abdu'l-Bahá wrote that women, as mothers, would be a force in establishing peace as they would oppose sending their children to war.^[6] `Abdu'l-Bahá wrote:

War and its ravages have blighted the world; the education of woman will be a mighty step toward its abolition and ending, for she will use her whole influence against war. Woman rears the child and educates the youth to maturity. She will refuse to give her sons for sacrifice upon the field of battle. In truth, she will be the greatest factor in establishing universal peace and international arbitration. Assuredly, woman will abolish warfare among mankind.^[7]

Moojan Momen writes that the goal of achieving equality of women and men in the Bahá'í Faith does not amount to bringing women into power in masculine roles, but instead a more radical change to the very nature of society, to make feminine qualities more valued.^[8]

[edit] Education of women

In the Bahá'í view, women have always been equal to men, and the reason why women have as of yet not achieved this equality is because of the lack of adequate educational and social opportunities.^[2] Thus Bahá'í teachings stress the need for women's education, not only as a means to increase opportunity for women to help achieve equality, but also since the education of mothers is essential to the proper upbringing of children.^[9] Because of the importance of the education of women, the education of daughters takes precedence over that of sons when financial resources do not exist to educate all of their children.^[9] Despite the linkage between motherhood and education, `Abdu'l-Bahá encouraged women to excel in arts and sciences, and stated that women's participation in the political sphere would be a prerequisite for peace.^[9]

[edit] Historical women figures in Bahá'í history

There have been a large number of women heroines who are celebrated in the history of the Bahá'í Faith including Táhirih, Navváb, Queen Marie, Bahíyyih Khánum, Martha Root, Lidia Zamenhof, and many others.

[edit] Táhirih

Táhirih was an influential poet and follower of the Bábí faith, the predecessor to the Bahá'í Faith, and often mentioned in Bahá'í literature as an example of courage in the struggle for women's rights. While the writings of Táhirih do not address the issue of women's rights precisely, Tahirih experienced the Báb's revelation as liberating, and broke with Islamic practices that were expected of women, such as appearing in public without a veil.^[10] Her actions which were out of norm caused controversy in the community and some saw her as scandalous or unchaste. To combat the attitudes of the community against Táhirih, the Báb gave her the title Táhirih, meaning the "pure."^[10] One of her most notable quotes is her deathbed utterance in 1852, "You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women."^[10]

[edit] Bahíyyih Khánum

Bahíyyih Khánum in 1895

Bahíyyih Khánum was born in 1846 and was the eldest daughter of Bahá'u'lláh and Ásíyih Khánum.^[11] She was entitled the Greatest holy Leaf.^[12] She was particularly dear to her father and is seen within the Bahá'í Faith as one of the greatest women to have lived.^[12] During World War I, she distributed food, clothing and medical aid to the local population suffering from starvation.^[11] After the death of `Abdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi, was named the head of the religion, but he was distraught with the passing of his grandfather and so went into meditation for a period of time. During that time Bahíyyih Khánum assumed the role of acting leader of the Bahá'í Faith, which was a rare position for a woman to be in at that time.^[11] She was entrusted as head of the religion when Shoghi Effendi was absent from the Bahá'í World Centre in Haifa.^[11][12] She died on 15 July 1932 was buried in the Bahá'í gardens below the Bahá'í Arc on Mount Carmel; the Monument of the Greatest Holy Leaf was built in her memory at the Bahá'í World Centre.^[11]

[edit] Social initiatives

Students of School for Girls, Tehran, 13 August 1933. The school was closed by government decree in 1934. Source: History of Bahá'í Educational Efforts in Iran.

The Bahá'í Faith's emphasis is on male-female equality and thus the Bahá'í Faith actively promotes a number of programs with the aim of the advancement of women with greater access for women to health, education, child-care, and business opportunities.^[13] In the early 1900s Bahá'í women became active in seeking advancement and were encouraged by `Abdu'l-Baha and were thus abole to gain a position of equality in Bahá'í administration.^[14] In Iran, education for girls was started by a Bahá'ís leading to the eventual establishment in 1910 of the Tarbiyat School for Girls which helped train the first generation of Iranian professional women.^[13] By the 1970s, while the majority of Iranian women were illiterate, most Bahá'í women could read and write.^[13]

Since the International Women's Year in 1975, the Universal House of Justice, the governing body of the Bahá'ís, has repeatedly called national Bahá'í communities to promote the equal participation of women in Bahá'í activities.^[13] In 1993, the Bahá'í International Community established the Office of the Advancement of Women in New York at the United Nations, and various national communities have also created their own offices.^[13] Activities in these programmes include the promotion of girls' education, literacy, rural health care, and income-generating skills.^[13]

The Bahá'í-inspired Tahirih Justice Center and the Barli Vocational Institute for Rural Women in Indore in India are projects that have received particular attention. Layli Miller-Muro founded the Tahirih Justice Center in 1997 following a well-publicized asylum case in which she was involved as a student attorney.^[15] Miller-Muro later co-wrote a book with the client she had aided and used her portion of the proceeds for the initial funding of Tahirih. As of 2003, the organization had assisted more than 4,000 women and children fleeing from a wide variety of abuses.^[16] The Barli Vocational Institute for Rural Women was founded in 1985 in India and offers a six-month program for tribal women at its facilities in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.^[17] Through June 1996, a total of 769 rural tribal women have been trained at the Institute;^[18] the women came from 119 villages, and after returning home to their cities or villages 45% of them established small businesses, 62% are functionally literate or semi-literate (which has motivated people to send their children to school), 42% have started growing vegetables, 97% are using safe drinking water, all the former trainees and many of their male relatives have given up drinking alcohol, and caste prejudices have been eliminated.^[18]

[edit] Distinction

While the Bahá'í teachings assert the full spiritual and social equality of women to men, there are some aspects of gender distinctiveness or gender differentiation in certain areas of life.^[3] One of these aspects relate to biological fact of potential motherhood for women, and thus the Bahá'í teaching that girls should be given priority in education as they potentially would be the children's first educator.^[14] In the same sense, the Bahá'í view of family life gives the right to the mother to be supported by the husband if needed. Similarly, the differences in the provisions of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Bahá'u'lláh's book of laws, where in the case of intestacy it provides slightly more inheritance to men that women can be seen in the same light.^[14]

While most of the teachings and laws of the Bahá'í Faith between a man and a woman apply mutatis mutandis as between a woman and a man, there are some Bahá'í teachings or laws that provide preference to women or men. Menstruating women are exempt from saying the obligatory prayer and from fasting due to biological differences; these exemptions are not compulsory and do not reflect any concepts of ritual impurity.^[14] Women also do not have the obligation of making pilgrimage, although they can if they choose; men who are financially able to do so are obliged to make the pilgrimage. In terms of Bahá'í administration, all positions except for membership on the Universal House of Justice are open to men and women. No specific reason has been given for this exception, but `Abdu'l-Bahá has stated that there is a wisdom for it, which would eventually become clear.^[14]

`Abdu'l-Bahá implies that women will become equal in "sciences and arts, in virtues and perfections", and are actually superior in "tenderness of heart and the abundance of mercy and sympathy"^[19] - virtues identified as gaining ascendancy as the world becomes more permeated with feminine ideals to balance the masculine ideals that now dominate.^[20]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Bramson, Loni (2004). "Bahiyyih Khanum". in Jestice, Phyllis G.. Holy People of the World: A Cross-cultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1576073556. 
• Buck, Christopher (1999). Paradise and Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Baha'i Faith. State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791440613. http://books.google.com/books?id=whfW9rEG2h4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Hatcher, W.S.; Martin, J.D. (1998). The Bahá'í Faith: The Emerging Global Religion. San Francisco: Harper & Row. ISBN 0877432643. 
• Kassindja, Fauziya (1999). Do They Hear You When You Cry. Delta. ISBN 0385319940. 
• Maneck, Susan (2005). "Baha'i women". in Joseph, Suad; Najmabadi. Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures: Family, Law and Politics. Brill Academic Publishers. pp. 15–18. 
• Maneck, Susan (1994). "Women in the Bahá'í Faith". in Sharma, Arvind. Religion and Women. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791416895. http://bahai-library.org/articles/women.faith.html. 
• Momen, Moojan (1994). "In all the Ways that Matter, Women Don't Count" (abstract). Bahá'Í Studies Review 4.1. http://www.breacais.demon.co.uk/abs/bsr04/44_momen_women.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-28. 
• Smith, Peter (2008). An Introduction to the Baha'i Faith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521862515. 
• Smith, Peter (2000). "Women". A concise encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. pp. 358–361. ISBN 1-85168-184-1. 
• Stetzer, Frank (2007). Religion on the Healing Edge: What Baha'is Believe. Baha'i Publishing. ISBN 1931847444. 

[edit] Further reading

• `Abdu'l-Bahá (1912b). The Promulgation of Universal Peace (Hardcover ed.). Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust: 1982. ISBN 0877431728. http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/PUP/. 
• Compiled by the Research Department Of The Universal House Of Justice (1986). Compilation on Women. Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust. ISBN 0877432600. http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/c/CW/index.html. 
• Khan, Janet A. and Khan, Peter (2003). Advancement of Women: A Bahá'í Perspective. Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust. ISBN 1931847037. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IL7Wge7igZIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Khan, Janet A. (2005). Prophet's Daughter: The Life and Legacy of Bahíyyih Khánum, Outstanding Heroine Of The Bahá'í Faith. Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust. ISBN 1931847142. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-8W-2DjcShcC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• van den Hoonaard, Deborah K., and van den Hoonaard, Will C. (2006). The Equality of Women and Men: The Experience of the Bahá'í Community of Canada. Douglas, New Brunswick, Canada: Deborah and Will van den Hoonaard. ISBN 09685258-1-4. 

[edit] External links

• Article by Susan Maneck
• Directory of Bahá'í Articles on Gender Equality
• Principles of the Bahá'í Faith - Equality of men and women
• Two Wings of a Bird - The Equality of Women and Men