Baháʼí Faith and gender equality

One of the fundamental teachings of the Baháʼí Faith is that men and women are equal and that equality of the sexes is a spiritual and moral standard essential for the unification of the planet and a prerequisite for peace. Baháʼí teachings stress the importance of implementing this principle in individual, family, and community life. Nevertheless, the Baháʼí notion of the full spiritual and social equality of the two sexes does not imply sameness, so that gender distinction and differentiation are observed in certain areas of life. Significantly, while women can and do serve in an extensive range of elected and appointed positions within the Baháʼí administration at both national and international levels, they are not permitted to serve as members of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing institution of the Baháʼí Faith.

Equality

The equality of men and women is a fundamental Baháʼí principle, that is explicit in the writings of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, and particularly in the writings and discourses of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, his son and chosen interpreter. In fact, the education of daughters is held to be more important than, and therefore to take precedence over, that of sons. In the Baháʼí view, women have always been equal to men, and the reason why women have so far not achieved this equality is due to the lack of adequate educational and social opportunities, and because men have used their greater physical strength to prevent women from developing their true potential. and that women and men were equal in the sight of God. Baháʼu'lláh wrote:

Both Baháʼu'lláh and ʻAbdu'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. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote:

Moojan Momen writes that the goal of achieving equality of women and men in the Baháʼí 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.

Education of women

In the Baháʼí view, women have always been equal to men, and the reason why women have not achieved this equality yet is because of the lack of adequate educational and social opportunities. 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 the children of a family.

Historical women figures in Baháʼí history

There have been a large number of women heroines who are celebrated in the history of the Baháʼí Faith including Khadíjih-Bagum, Táhirih, Navváb, Queen Marie, Bahíyyih Khánum, Martha Root, Leonora Armstrong, Lidia Zamenhof, and many others.

Táhirih

Táhirih was an influential poet and follower of the Bábí faith, the predecessor to the Baháʼí Faith, and often mentioned in Baháʼí literature as an example of courage in the struggle for women's rights. She is often referred to as "the first woman suffrage martyr". Táhirih was the seventeenth disciple or "Letter of the Living" of the Báb. While the writings of Táhirih do not address the issue of women's rights precisely, Táhirih 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 at the Conference of Badasht. 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." An unverified quote has been attributed to Táhirih by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá about her final utterance in 1852: "You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women." According to some scholars this quote is "perhaps apocryphal". She was entitled the Greatest holy Leaf. She was particularly dear to her father and is seen within the Baháʼí Faith as one of the greatest women to have lived. as well as individual members of the Universal House of Justice – indeed it is the highest station that could be achieved open to anyone in the religion. The title is no longer given out. The work of the Hands of the Cause is now carried out by the Continental Counsellors and the Auxiliary Boards.

Eight out of the fifty known Hands of the Cause were women (in order of appointment):

Keith Ransom-Kehler (1876–1933) (singled out as the first woman Hand of the Cause and first American martyr)
Martha Root (1872–1939) (singled out as the foremost Hand of the Cause of the first Baháʼí century and the "first finest fruit" of the Formative Age.)
Dorothy Beecher Baker (1898–1954)
Amelia Engelder Collins (1873–1962)
Clara Dunn (1869–1960)
Corinne Knight True (1861–1961)
Rúhíyyih Khánum (1910–2000)
Agnes Baldwin Alexander (1875–1971)

During the period between the death of Shoghi Effendi and the election of the Universal House of Justice the Hands of the Cause held a convocation from which they constituted a body of nine from among their number to serve in the Holy Land and to act as Custodians of the Baháʼí Faith, a body which functioned without officers and with a quorum of five, whose duties included taking care of Baháʼí World Center properties and other assets; corresponding with and advising National and Regional Spiritual Assemblies; acting on behalf of the Baháʼí Faith for its protection; and maintaining close contact with the rest of the Hands, who would henceforth devote their time to the successful completion of the goals of the Ten Year Crusade. The Hands of the Cause maintained the number of Custodians, replacing those who died or were unable, for health or personal reasons, to remain at the Baháʼí World Center permanently. Of these nine, two women served as Custodians: Amelia Collins and Rúhíyyih Khánum.

International Baháʼí Council

The International Baháʼí Council was a nine-member council as a precursor to the Universal House of Justice, which replaced it in 1963. In March 1951 Shoghi Effendi began appointing its membership and in 1961 elections were held (and once elections were the rule, Hands of the Cause were exempted from being members.) The women members of the International Baháʼí Council, and their dates of their service were:

Rúhíyyih Khanum (1951–1961) Liaison with Shoghi Effendi; Hand of the Cause of God
Amelia Collins (1951–1961) Vice president; Hand of the Cause
Jessie Revell (1951–1963) Treasurer
Ethel Revell (1951–1963) Western Assistant Secretary
Gladys Weeden (1951–52)
Sylvia Ioas (1955–1961)
Mildred Mottahedeh (1961–1963)

Continental Counsellors

After the election of the Universal House of Justice, boards of counsellors were created in 1973 by appointment who outrank the national assemblies, though individually counsellors ranked lower than that of the Hands of the Cause. There are 90 counsellors – 81 serving on continental boards and 9 serving at the International Teaching Center. From a picture of a gathering of all counsellors in 2005 a number of them are clearly women. The number of counsellors acting as members of the International Teaching Center have varied. Initially, excluding the Hands of the Cause (all of whom were initial members.) From 1980 to 2000 there were nine total counsellors and four of them were women. Since 2000 the number of women counsellors serving at the ITC has been five of the nine. Not counting the Hands of the Cause, the women and their years of service are:

Florence Mayberry (1973–1983)
Anneliese Bopp (1979–1988)
Dr. Magdalene Carney (1983–1991)
Isobel Sabri (1983–1992)
Lauretta King (1988–2003)
Joy Stevenson (1988–1998)
Joan Lincoln (1993–2013)
Kimiko Schwerin (1993–1998)
Violette Haake (1998–2008)
Dr. Penny Walker (1998–2013)
Zenaida Ramirez (2000–2013)
Rachel Ndegwa (2003– )
Uransaikhan Granfar (2008–2018)
Alison Milston (2013–2018)
Edith Senoga (?)
Antonella Demonte (2013– )
Mehranguiz Farid Tehrani (2013– )
Gloria Javid (2018– )
Dr. Holly Woodard (2018– )

The percent of women serving as counselors rose from 24% of 63 counselors in 1980 to 48% of 81 counselors serving worldwide. (indeed some were elected officers in 1952.) However, as late as the 1970s one observer could only count two women delegates out of the more than one hundred attending the national Baha'i convention in Tehran. Yet when the members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of Iran were arrested and executed in 1981, the chairperson was a woman, Zhinus Mahmudi. However a statistical review across continents and for the Baha'is world population shows a general upward track of women being elected to national assemblies (see graphs.) A similar pattern exists for women serving in appointed positions.

upright=1.25|center|Percentage of Women serving on Baháʼí National Spiritual Assemblies by continental region Source: .

The world average of women serving on National Assemblies had reached rates of 31% as early as 1953, been above 31% continuously since 1996, and reached 39% in 2007, the last date for which data is currently available.

Some more recent socially or professionally notable women Baháʼís include:

Dorothy Wright Nelson
Helen Elsie Austin
Jacqueline Left Hand Bull
Layli Miller-Muro
Mona Mahmudnizhad
Patricia Locke
Zhang Xin
Zia Mody

[[File:Tarbiyat School, Tehran, ca 1911.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Students of School for Girls, Tehran, 13 August 1933. The school was closed by government decree in 1934. Source: History of Baháʼí Educational Efforts in Iran.]]

The Baháʼí Faith's emphasis is on the equality of women and men and thus the Baháʼí 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. In the early 1900s Baháʼí women became active in seeking advancement and were encouraged by ʻAbdu'l-Baha and were thus able to gain a position of equality in Baháʼí administration. In Iran, education for girls was started by a Baháʼís leading to the eventual establishment in 1910 of the Tarbiyat School for Girls which helped train the first generation of Iranian professional women. 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. , the organization had assisted more than 4,000 women and children fleeing from a wide variety of abuses. 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. Through June 1996, a total of 769 rural tribal women have been trained at the institute; 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. – virtues identified as gaining ascendancy as the world becomes more permeated with feminine ideals to balance the masculine ideals that now dominate.

Notes

References

External links

Directory of Baháʼí Articles on Gender Equality
Principles of the Baháʼí Faith – Equality of men and women
Two Wings of a Bird – The Equality of Women and Men