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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Susan Maneck, Women in the Baha'i Faith, Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1994, bahai-library.com.
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Women in the Bahá'í Faith
Susan Maneck
published in Religion and Women
Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1994
INTRODUCTION
The Bahá'í faith is the youngest of the world's religions.
Bahá'u'lláh, the prophet-founder of the Bahá'í faith, was born in
Iran in 1817. He claimed to be the latest messenger sent by God, an
assertion that irremediably separated the Bahá'ís from their Islamic
background. Bahá'ís believe that while all religions have been
ordained by God, the social teachings of religions have varied
according to the needs of the age in which a prophet appears. The
central theme of the Bahá'í message is the establishment of the unity
of humankind in a single global society. This necessitates the
establishment of a world government, the achievement of universal
education, the elimination of all forms of prejudice, and the
attainment of full equality of men and women. No other world religion
has been quite as explicit as the Bahá'í faith in its support of the
principle of the equality of men and women. Bahá'ís themselves
proudly assert it as one of the distinguishing features of the new
revelation. This equality does not refer solely to the spiritual
plane, for Bahá'í scriptures explicitly state that there should be
"no difference in the education of male and female in order that
womankind may develop equal capacity and importance with man in the
social and economic equation." They further assert that "women will
enter all the department of politics." Yet the understanding of this
principle varies considerably among Bahá'ís. Many support a higher
evaluation of women's traditional roles, particularly in family life,
but foresee little change in the roles themselves. Others call for a
fundamental transformation of the very structure of relations in
community life, which would incorporate values from Bahá'í
scriptures.
Regarding family life, the secretary of the Guardian of
the Bahá'í faith wrote on his behalf: "The task of bringing up a
Bahá'í child, as emphasized time and again in Bahá'í Writings, is the
chief responsibility of the mother." The Universal House of justice,
the supreme governing body for the Bahá'í world, asserts that the
corollary to this is that the financial responsibility for supporting
the family rests with the husband. The exclusion of women from the
Universal House of justice (which will be discussed later) has tended
to perpetuate arguments for "separate but equal spheres" in other
realms as well. At the same time, Bahá'í ideals for a new world order
cannot be attained without a change in societal structures, with
women playing a leading role:
The world in the past has been ruled by force, and man has dominated
over woman by reason of his more forceful and aggressive qualities
both of body and mind. But the balance is already shifting-force is
losing its weight and mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual
qualities of love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining
ascendancy. Hence the new age will be an age less masculine, and
more permeated with the feminine ideals — or, to speak more exactly,
will be an age in which the masculine and feminine elements of
civilization will be more evenly balanced.
Many Bahá'í women today have tried to hold together all of these
statements in the writings by exhibiting the "supermom" syndrome:
fulfilling their roles as wives and mothers while attempting to excel
in their chosen careers. Needless to say, this doubling of duties
creates tremendous stress for these women. Bahá'ís are often unaware
of the historical contexts in which various pronouncements regarding
women were made, and this creates great confusion regarding their
proper understanding. This issue is confounded by the fact that the
development of the Bahá'í faith in its early formative period took
place in two radically disparate cultures and continents.
Originating in Iran in the middle of the nineteenth century, the
religion spread to North America in the 1890s. While Bahá'í theology
was born in the context of a nearly homogeneous Islamic Shi'ite
culture, its administrative structure developed in the United
States. In the course of this chapter I will trace the role of women
within the Bahá'í faith from the time of its inception as the Babi
movement, through its introduction to the West, until the present
time. I will examine both the scriptural status of women as well as
the reality of their position within the Bahá'í community. While
Bahá'í communities exist in nearly all countries, I will restrict my
discussion to Iran and North America, since sufficient documentation
exists only for those two areas, and developments in those religions
have largely determined the direction taken by the rest of the Bahá'í
world.
TAHIRIH: A BAHA'I PARADIGM OF WOMANHOOD
Nearly every religion has its paradigm of the "ideal" woman. In
Hinduism this has been Sita, the perfect wife who remains faithful to
her husband at all costs. In Christianity the most eminent woman is
the Virgin Mary, symbol of motherhood. Islam has Fatimih, daughter
of Muhammad, who models the roles of mother, wife, and daughter
together. Tahirih, the most well-known woman in Babi-Bahá'í history,
presents a startling contrast to the former models. This gifted poet
of nineteenth-century Iran, far from being a dutiful daughter,
continually opposed the theological positions of her father, Mulla
Salih, a prominent Muslim cleric of Qazvin. Neither is she admired
for her success as a wife and mother, since her estrangement from her
husband resulted in her forced separation from her children as well.
In 1844 C.E. (1260 A.H.) Siyyid Ali Muhammad al-Bab secretly
revealed himself to be the Qa'im, the messianic figure expected by
the Shi'ite Muslims. He selected eighteen followers as his chief
disciples and entitled them, along with himself, the Nineteen Letters
of the Living. At the time, Tahirih was a leading figure within the
Shaykhi sect. Although she had never met the Bab, she immediately
embraced his religion and was appointed a "Letter." Tahirih, whose
given name was Fatimih Bigum Baraghani, was the daughter of the
leading clerical family of Qazvin. She had received an excellent
education in all the traditional Islamic sciences and was able to
translate many of the Bab's writings from Arabic into Persian.
Despite her background, Tahirih's writings were fiercely
anticlerical. Basing her authority on her claim to an inner
awareness of God's purpose, she instituted a number of innovations
within the Babi community. Claiming that much of Islamic law was no
longer binding upon Babis, she refused to perform the daily ritual
prayers. But her most audacious act was occasionally to appear
unveiled in gatherings of believers.
According to Abbas Amanat, this was probably the first time an
Iranian woman had considered unveiling at her own initiative. The
circle of women who gathered around Tahirih in Karbila, and later
Qazvin, Hamadan, Baghdad, and Teheran, were perhaps the first
group of women in those regions to have attained an awareness of
their deprivations as women. Yet Tahirih's activities did not
represent a woman's liberation movement in the modern sense. For
Tahirih, removing the veil was primarily an act of religious
innovation. Neither the writings of Tahirih nor the Bab concern
themselves with the issue of women's rights as such. Apparently
Tahirih experienced the Bab's revelation as liberating, whether or
not it addressed itself to the status of women per se.
Tahirih's activities created much controversy within the Babi
community itself. Many Babis did not view the Bab's revelation
as requiring a total break with the past or with Islamic law.
They regarded Tahirih's behavior as scandalous and unchaste. For
this reason, the Bab gave her the title by which she is now
known, Tahirih, meaning the "pure." The opposition of the
non-Babi ulama (Islamic clergymen) went much deeper. During the
month of Muharram, 1847, Tahirih deliberately excited their
reaction by dressing in gay colors and appearing unveiled
instead of donning the customary mourning clothes to commemorate
the martyrdom of Imam Husayn. She urged the Babis, instead, to
celebrate the birthday of the Bab, which fell on the first day
of that month. The enraged clergy incited a mob to attack the
house where she was staying. Finally the governor intervened and
had Tahirih placed under house arrest before having her sent to
Baghdad.
Accompanied by the leading Babi women of Karbila, along with a
number of devoted male followers, Tahirih set out for Baghdad,
where she continued her activities, offering public lectures
from behind a curtain. This aroused further opposition and
caused her to be imprisoned in the house of the mufti, or
leading Sunni cleric of Baghdad. But she was not tried for
apostasy, since the usual penalty for that crime (death) could
not be applied to women. Meanwhile, her family in Qazvin was
quite disturbed by her activities. Her unveiling, in
particular, led to rumors of immorality. Tahirih's father
dispatched a relative to Iraq who induced the governor to order
her return to Iran. Wherever she traveled en route, more
excitement was raised. In the village of Krand some twelve
hundred people immediately offered her their allegiance.
In Kirmanshah her presence caused such an uproar that the Babis
were attacked by a mob and driven out of the city, but not
before Tahirih had expounded the teachings before its leading
women, including the governor's wife. In Hamadan Tahirih met
with both the leading ulama and the most notable women of the
city, as well as members of the royal family. On the arrival in
Qazvin, her husband, Mulla Muhammad, from whom she had been long
estranged, urged her to return to his household. She told him:
"If your desire had really been to be a faithful mate and companion
to me, you would have hastened to meet me in Karbila and would on
foot have guided my howdah all the way to Qazvin. I would, while
journeying with you, have aroused you from your sleep of heedlessness
and would have shown you the way of truth. But this was not to be.
Three years have lapsed since our separation. Neither in this world
nor in the next can I ever be associated with you. I have cast you
out of my life forever."
Tahirih's uncle and father-in-law, Muhammad Taqi, had a reputation
for being virulently opposed to both the Babis and the Shaykhis. On
numerous occasions he incited mob violence against them. After one
of these incidents, Mulla Abdu'llah, a Shaykhi and a Babi
sympathizer, decided to retaliate. When Mulla Taqi appeared in the
local mosque to offer his dawn prayers, Mulla Abdu'llah fatally
stabbed him and fled. This led to the arrest and torture of many of
the Babis in Qazvin. Tahirih was implicated as well. In order to
stop this orgy of violence, Mulla Abdu'llah turned himself in.
Despite this the other Babis were not released and many were
executed. Tahirih escaped with the assistance of Bahá'u'lláh, who
hid her in his home in Teheran. Later, following a general call to
Babis to gather in Khurasan, Tahirih and Bahá'u'lláh traveled to a
place called Badasht, where some eighty-one Babi leaders met to
consider how they might effect the release of the Bab, who was then
imprisoned, and to discuss the future direction of the Babi community
in the face of growing persecution. At the meeting tension developed
between Tahirih — who headed the more radical Babis advocating a
complete break with Islam as well as militant defense of their
community — and the more conservative Quddus — who initially advocated
policies aimed at the rejuvenation of Islam and prudent accommodation
with religious and secular power.
Babis generally accepted Quddus as the chief of the Bab's disciples,
but Tahirih reportedly said in regards to him. "I deem him a pupil
whom the Bab has sent me to edify and instruct. I regard him in no
other light." Quddus denounced Tahirih as "the author of heresy." At
one time when Quddus was rapt in his devotions, Tahirih rushed out of
her tent brandishing a sword. "Now is not the time for prayers and
prostrations." she declared, "rather on to the battle field of love
and sacrifice."
Her most startling act was to appear before the
assembled believers unveiled. Shoghi Effendi vividly describes that
scene:
"Tahirih, regarded as the fair and spotless emblem of chastity and
the incarnation of the holy Fatimih, appeared suddenly, adorned yet
unveiled, before the assembled companions, seated herself on the
right-hand of the affrighted and infuriated Quddus, and, tearing
through her fiery words the veils guarding the sanctity of the
ordinances of Islam, sounded the clarion-call and proclaimed the
inauguration of a new Dispensation. The effect was instantaneous.
She, of such stainless purity, so reverenced that even to gaze at her
shadow was deemed an improper act, appeared for a moment in the eyes
of her scandalized beholders, to have defamed herself, shamed the
Faith she espoused, and sullied the immortal Countenance she
symbolized. Fear, anger, bewilderment swept their inmost souls, and
stunned their faculties. Abdu'l Khaliq-i-Isfahani, aghast and
deranged at the sight, cut his throat with his own hands. Spattered
with blood, and frantic with excitement, he fled away from her
face."
Unperturbed, Tahirih declared, "I am the Word which the Qa'im is to
utter, the Word which shall put to flight the chiefs and nobles of
the earth!" Tahirih, much to the dismay of many Babis, finally won
Quddus over to her point of view. He conceded that Islamic law had
been abrogated. So complete was their reconciliation that the two
departed from Badasht riding in the same howdah. When they neared
the village of Niyala, the local mulla, outraged at seeing an
unveiled woman sitting next to a man and chanting poems aloud, led a
mob against them. Several people died in the resulting clash and the
Babis dispersed in different directions. Pitched battles raged
between the Babis and government forces between 1848 and 1850 in the
Iranian province of Mazandaran and in the cities of Zanjan and
Nayriz. Tahirih remained in hiding, moving from village to village
for about a year. Around 1849 authorities arrested her on charges of
complicity in the assassination of her uncle. They brought her to
Teheran where they imprisoned her in the in house of the kalantar
(mayor). The kalantar's wife soon became very
attached to Tahirih and women again flocked to hear her discourses.
On July 9, 1850, the Bab was executed in Tabriz by order of the
shah. Two years later a small group of Babis sought to take
revenge by assassinating the shah. The attempt failed and general
massacre of Babis ensued. The government decided to execute
Tahirih as well. She was taken to a garden and strangled to death.
Her body was thrown down a well. Her last words (perhaps
apocryphal) are reported to be. "You can kill me as soon as you
like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women."
WOMEN IN THE WRITINGS OF BAHA'U'LLAH
The writings of Bahá'u'lláh unequivocally proclaim the equality of
men and women, asserting that "in this Day the Hand of divine grace
hath removed all distinction. The Servants of God and His handmaidens
are regarded on the same plane." Elsewhere he suggests that
differences between the sexes are the result of "vain imaginings" and
"idle fancies," which by the power of his might had been destroyed.
He further insists on the education of girls.
Yet Bahá'u'lláh's writings do present some problems from a feminist
standpoint. The Kitab-i-Aqdas, the book that contains Bahá'í sacred
law was written in Arabic, a language that by its nature requires the
male gender to be used for collectives. Most of its admonitions and
laws are addressed to men. A literal reading of its text would
suggest that divorce was solely the male's prerogative. Bigamy
appears to be permissible, although monogamy is preferred. Should a
marriage be contracted on the basis of a woman's virginity, and the
man subsequently discover she was not a virgin, the marriage could be
repudiated and the dowry forfeited, although Bahá'u'lláh states that
it would be preferable to conceal the matter and forgive. In certain
contexts, women are given special treatment. They are exempt from
the obligation to perform pilgrimage. They are also exempt from the
daily ritual prayers and fasting during their menses. Other
exemptions exist for pregnancy and nursing. Most problematic is
Bahá'u'lláh's reference to "the men of the House of justice," which
has been interpreted as excluding women from the highest
administrative body in the faith. This androcentric view, which a
cursory reading of the text gives, is not, it should be recognized,
the manner in which Bahá'ís have typically understood the Aqdas.
Bahá'u'lláh's son, Abdu'l-Bahá, whom Bahá'ís recognize as the
authorized interpreter of the sacred writings, stated that since
bigamy was conditioned upon equal treatment of both wives, which is
impossible, monogamy alone is permissible. Shoghi Effendi further
states that women have the same rights as men to sue for divorce and
that the requirement for virginity can certainly be applied to either
sex. Only in the case of membership in the Universal House of
justice has the male-oriented language been taken literally. When read
within the context of nineteenth-century Iran, the Kitab-i-Aqdas
presents some startling contrasts to the norms of male-female
relations. While the Aqdas makes it optional for women to perform
the obligatory prayers or fast during their menses, within Islam they
are not permitted to do so at all, since they are regarded as
ritually unclean at such times. Many of the laws contained in the
Aqdas were addressed to specific concerns raised by individuals,
usually male, within the community. For instance, Bahá'u'lláh made
parental consent a prerequisite to marriage. The question
immediately arose as to whether this was binding on men as well as
women, and if it were binding on women who had been previously
married. Bahá'u'lláh refused to make any distinction between male
and female in this regard, insisting that this regulation existed
solely for the unity of the family and had nothing to do with the
status of women. Most startling is Bahá'u'lláh's treatment of sexual
issues. The sexuality of women, in both Judaism and Islam, has been
seen as a potentially dangerous force that threatens the honor of the
family and, indeed, the whole social fabric. The duty of male
relatives to defend that honor historically has led to the strict
seclusion of women. Women who violated sexual mores were commonly
killed whereas men received the death penalty only if they had
intercourse with a married women, thus violating another man's
rights. But according to the Aqdas, adulterers are subject to a
fine, not the death penalty. Bahá'ís are even discouraged from
divorcing on the grounds of adultery. Control of sexuality in the
Aqdas is a matter of great spiritual significance, with important
social implications, but it is not treated as the glue of community
life.
Bahá'u'lláh's treatment of certain economic issues in regards to
women is somewhat more problematic and has raised a certain amount
of controversy lately. The inheritance laws presume a situation
where the male is the primary breadwinner of the family. These laws
are quite complex, but generally speaking, in the case of intestacy,
female heirs are awarded only half of what their male counterparts
receive. In this they are similar to Islamic inheritance laws,
which are, however, binding on all with or without a will. This led
some Bahá'ís to assert that the law of intestacy represents what
ought to be normative among Bahá'ís. Men retain their position as
the primary breadwinners of the family, with certain rights and
responsibilities. A patrilineal, though not patriarchal, society is
thus maintained. Such an arrangement is necessary to insure the
participation of the male in family life.
Others, including this author, have argued that since Bahá'u'lláh
requires all believers to write a will, what he has written in
regards to intestacy is exceptional, not normative. The Aqdas
describes an equitable distribution of property within the context of
nineteenth-century Iran and is thus more descriptive than
prescriptive. The Aqdas also excludes non-Bahá'ís from inheritance
entirely, a provision made in a situation of oppression and
persecution where Bahá'ís were commonly disowned by non-Bahá'í
relatives. Shoghi Effendi states that under normal circumstances it
is only fair for Bahá'ís to provide for non-Bahá'í relatives, and
emphasizes the need for all Bahá'ís to write wills to do so. The
Bahá'í claim to equality of sexes, many hold, would be meaningless if
it did not embrace the economic sphere. Perhaps the key issue in this
debate revolves around the yet unresolved issue of the treatment of
scripture. The more conservative believers interpret the sacred
writings in an absolute, timeless sense, minimizing their cultural
context. They therefore draw essential principles from all parts of
scripture equally. The more liberal understanding regards the
historical situation within which such writings were revealed to be
essential for meaningful exegesis. it holds that the most meaningful
portions of scripture are those that depart radically from the
cultural context in which they were written. In regards to gender
relations, the conservative approach leads to a situation where
equality is enjoined in the spiritual realm but social inequalities
are allowed to persist.
Another issue that might be raised with regard to Bahá'u'lláh's
writings is the use of gender in connection with the deity. It has
been argued, with good reason, that the exclusive use of male gender
in referring to God leads to a perpetuation of male dominance.
Bahá'u'lláh's legal writings were composed in Arabic, a language
which necessitated the use of the male gender when referring to God.
In order to preserve the integrity of the text, Shoghi Effendi has
stated that it is impermissible to change the gender of the writings
even in the use of prayers. Bahá'u'lláh's more mystical writings,
however, are in Persian, which has no gender. Nevertheless, these
writings have, without exception, been translated into English using
the male gender. The mystical-erotic language employed in many of
these texts, which refer to God as the beloved, might suggest that
the female gender would be more appropriate. Sufi mysticism often
depicts God as a beautiful woman and Bahá'u'lláh's Persian writings
utilize much Sufi imagery.
FROM EAST TO WEST
In 1892 Bahá'u'lláh passed away, leaving the leadership of the Bahá'í
community in the hands of his eldest son, Abdu'l-Bahá. The following
year, a Bahá'í convert of Lebanese Christian background, Ibrahim
Kheiralla, introduced the religion to the West. As was the case in
nearly all religious groups in nineteenth-century America, women
played a prominent role. Female converts generally outnumbered men
by two to one. The August 20, 1910, issue of Bahá'í News stated
"nine-tenths of the active workers in the Cause in the West are
women." Not all Bahá'í men were delighted with this state of affairs.
The same issue of Bahá'í News contained a letter from Charles Mason
Remey complaining that in most Bahá'í localities women performed the
bulk of the work, holding Bahá'í meetings in the early afternoons
when men were unable to attend. Women, he held, were content simply
to attend meetings, but men needed to do work and very few localities
were organized for "efficient work." The belief existed among many
American Bahá'í men that women ought to confine their activities to
the teaching work, leaving administrative activities to men. This
opinion was apparently reinforced by many of the Iranian Bahá'í
teachers sent to America by Abdu'l-Bahá. In the fall of 1899 Edward
Getsinger organized a "Board of Counsel" for the Bahá'ís of northern
New Jersey. Isabella Brittingham was appointed corresponding
secretary but was not a voting member of that body. In March 1900
Thornton Chase reported that Chicago had formed a "Board of Counsel"
consisting of ten men. Later that year Abdu'l-Karim Tihrani
reorganized the board, expanding its membership to nineteen and
including women. The following year Mirza Assadu'llah isfahani again
reorganized the governing body, insisting only men could be elected.
At that time the board began calling itself the House of justice.
Some Bahá'í women expressed dissatisfaction with this arrangement,
complaining that "Mirza Assad'ullah ignored us, although they were
all invited to meet with us, and he established a House of justice of
men only.
Perhaps most distressed with these developments was Corinne
True, who appealed to Abdu'l-Bahá to rescind the directive confining
membership on the House of justice to men. She received a reply from
Abdu'l-Bahá in June 1902 but refrained from sharing it with the
Chicago Bahá'ís until the fall of that year. The letter read:
"Know thou, O handmaid, that in the sight of Bahá, women are
accounted the same as men, and God hath created all humankind in his
own image, and after His own likeness. That is, men and women alike
are the revelers of His names and attributes, and from the spiritual
viewpoint there is no difference between them....
The House of justice, however, according to the explicit text of the
Law of God, is confined to men, this for a wisdom of the Lord God's,
which will ere long be made manifest as clearly as the sun at high
noon. As to you, O ye other handmaids who are enamored of the
heavenly fragrances, arrange ye holy gatherings, and found ye
Spiritual Assemblies, for these are the basis for spreading the
sweet savors of God, exalting His Word, uplifting the lamp of His
grace, promulgating His religion and promoting His Teachings, and
what bounty is there greater than this."
Earlier, Corinne True along with Ella Nash had organized a ladies'
auxiliary board which, after this letter, became known as the women's
assembly of teaching. in practice this body functioned as a parallel
institution to the Chicago house. It appears this body was able to
maintain control of much of the funds of the Chicago Bahá'í community,
perhaps because the main contributors were women. The Chicago house
frequently found itself without adequate financial support. At times
their relations were anything but harmonious.
Thornton Chase, regarded as the first American Bahá'í, strongly
opposed the participation of women on Bahá'í administrative bodies in
communities where there were men available to serve. He believed
women were much too emotional for these functions and that
Bahá'u'lláh explicitly excluded their participation as "business
controllers". Abdu'l-Bahá, however, did not seem to question
women's abilities as planners and administrators. In 1903 the
Chicago House of Spirituality determined to build a house of worship
similar to one recently begun by Bahá'ís in Ishqabad, Russia. In
1906 Mrs. True visited Abdu'l-Bahá in Palestine. At that time
Abdu'l-Bahá gave her specific instructions regarding the construction
of the Chicago temple. immediately afterward, Thornton Chase arrived
in Palestine for his own pilgrimage. In response to Mr. Chase's
questions regarding the temple, Abdu'l-Bahá responded that he had
given complete instructions to Mrs. True and that Chase should
consult with her. When it became apparent that the construction of a
house of worship constituted a more formidable task than the Chicago
Bahá'í community was then capable of undertaking. Corinne True urged
the forming of a national Bahá'í body for that purpose. With the
approval of Abdu'l-Bahá, delegates representing Bahá'í communities
throughout North America elected the Bahá'í temple unity executive
board in 1909. Of the nine members chosen, three were women, with
Corinne True serving as financial secretary. Some of the Bahá'í men
objected to this "seeming open-handed kidnapping ... of various
institutions of the Cause by women." Others defended the women,
insisting that at this stage the Bahá'í faith required the kind of
"mothering" that only women could provide. By 1925 the executive
board evolved into the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of
the United States and Canada. In 1909 Corinne True received a letter
from Abdu'l-Bahá in response to her insistent questioning on the
issue of women serving on the Houses of justice. It read:
"According to the ordinances of the Faith of God, women are the
equals of men in all rights save only that of membership on the
Universal House of justice, for, as hath been stated in the text of
the Book, both the head and the members of the House of justice are
men. However, in all other bodies, such as the Temple Construction
Committee, the Teaching Committee, the Spiritual Assembly, and in
charitable and scientific associations, women share equally in all
right with men."
Unlike Abdu'l-Bahá's previous correspondence, this letter seemed to
exclude women's participation only on the, as yet, unformed
international Bahá'í body not on the local or national houses of
justices. At least this was the understanding of Corinne True, who
again began to agitate for the election of women to the Chicago House
of Spirituality. Not all Bahá'ís agreed with this interpretation,
however, viewing it as a repetition of the Abdu'l-Bahá's ruling in
his earlier letter. Thornton Chase, irritated by True's activities,
wrote in 1910:
"Several years ago, soon after the forming of the "House of
justice"... Mrs. True wrote to Abdu'l-Bahá and asked if women
should not be members of that House. He replied distinctly, that the
House should be composed of men only, and told her that there was a
wisdom in this. It was a difficult command for her to accept, and
ever since (confidentially) there has been in that quarter and in
those influenced by her a feeling of antagonism to the House of
Spirituality, which has manifested itself in various forms....
Mrs. True received a Tablet, in which it was stated (in reply to her
solicitation) that it was right for women to be members of all
"Spiritual Gatherings" except the "Universal House of justice," and
she at once construed this to mean, that women were to be members of
the House of Spirituality and the Council Boards, because in some of
the Tablets for the House, it had been addressed as the "Spiritual
Assembly" or "Spiritual Gathering." But the House of Spirituality
could not so interpret the Master's meaning."
Further investigation on the part of the Chicago House of
Spirituality showed that elsewhere in the United States Abdu'l-Bahá
had authorized the election of both men and women to local bodies.
They therefore concluded that "in organizing Spiritual Assemblies of
Consultation now, it is deemed advisable by Abdu'l-Bahá to have them
composed of both men and women. The wisdom of this will become
evident in due time, no doubt. Apparently the members of this body
expected that when local and national bodies became official "houses
of justice" women would be removed from membership, but until then
men would have to put up with the situation. The all-male
administrative bodies finally were completely dissolved by
Abdu'l-Bahá in his visit to America in 1912.
FROM WEST TO EAST
The introduction of the Bahá'í faith to America had a profound effect
on the position of Bahá'í women in Iran. Western Bahá'ís began
traveling to Iran, where they spoke to Bahá'í gatherings. In the
opening years of the twentieth century Iranian Bahá'í women were
still excluded from participation in Bahá'í administrative
institutions, had little access to education, and, in most cases,
still wore the veil. Charles Mason Remey, who published a pamphlet
relating his experiences in Iran in 1908, observed that many Persian
Bahá'í women expressed dissatisfaction with this state of affairs and
began to agitate for change. He described one incident where he was
speaking to a Bahá'í gathering where men and women were separated by
a curtain. Remey was asked by his hostess to describe the activities
of Bahá'í women in America. As he did, the hostess became more and
more excited and finally drew back the curtain and urged the other
women present to remove their veils and join the men. The men made
room for the newcomers by withdrawing, somewhat uneasily, to the far
side of the room. Bit by bit the men regained their composure, but
then the women became rather embarrassed. Suddenly "all arose and
like a flock of affrighted birds fluttered from the room." Remey
ended his account by suggesting that Western Bahá'í women begin
corresponding with their Eastern sisters. His hope was that
eventually several would be able to settle in Iran as teachers and
physicians.
The following year Dr. Susan Moody arrived from Chicago
to join a small group of Iranian Bahá'í doctors in establishing a
hospital in Teheran. Over the next few years, Elizabeth Stewart, a
nurse, Dr. Sarah Clock, and Lillian Kappes, a teacher, joined her.
At this time a number of girls' schools were operated on an informal
basis by Bahá'í women. Since, with the assistance of American
Bahá'ís, the community had maintained a highly reputed boys' school,
Dr. Moody persuaded the executive committee of that school to adopt
one of these girls' schools as a separate department. Eventually
this school became one of the finest girls' college preparatory
schools in Iran. In 1911 Godseah Ashraf became the first Iranian
Bahá'í woman to travel to America for the purpose of pursuing
graduate work in educational psychology. She then returned to Iran
and taught in Bahá'í schools. During Abdu'l-Bahá's travels to the
West in 1911-1912, he made more explicit Bahá'í teachings with regard
to women's rights, stressing especially the need for women's
education, the lack of which he viewed as the sole reason for the
perceived inferiority of women. He deemed the education of mothers
so essential to the proper upbringing of children that he held that
the education of daughters should take precedence over that of sons.
But Abdu'l-Bahá did not restrict women's function in society to the
home. He urged women to excel in all the arts and sciences and,
further, expected their participation on an equal footing in the
political sphere as well. He stated that women's political
participation would be a prerequisite for peace. The only field
(aside from membership on the Universal House of justice) where
Abdu'l-Bahá did not extend full and equal participation was in
military endeavors, since he regarded the taking of human life
incompatible with women's role as mothers. Copies of Abdu'l-Bahá's
talks were distributed throughout Iran, and these, along with the
influence of American Bahá'ís residing in Iran, awakened Iranian
Bahá'í women to possibilities unthought of in previous generations.
Apparently they began to advocate the immediate abolishment of the
veil, as well as women's full participation in administrative
affairs. Abdu'l-Bahá was not entirely pleased with these
developments, for, besides the stress and disunity these issues were
creating within the Bahá'í community itself, he felt that actions
such as discarding the veil would bring on needless persecution in an
already volatile situation. Abdu'l-Bahá pleaded with the Iranian
women not to do anything "contrary to wisdom." Women's assemblages
at this time should be confined to educational matters so that
"differences will, day by day, be entirely wiped out, not that, God
forbid, it will end in argumentation between men and women." Their
efforts should be in the spiritual, not the political realm.
Abdu'l-Bahá would in time insure that they achieved full equality
with men in all areas. in the meantime they ought not to agitate
against the men for such changes. He chided the women for their
impatience, saying "this newly born babe is traversing in one night
the path that needeth a hundred years to tread.
While women were allowed to vote within the Iranian Bahá'í
community, it was not until 1954 that they were permitted to serve
on Bahá'í institutions. As late as the 1970s one observer could
only count two women delegates out of the more than one hundred
attending the national Bahá'í convention in Teheran. Yet when the
members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Iran
were arrested and executed in 1981, the chairperson was a woman,
Zhinus Mahmudi.
In recent years Bahá'í institutions throughout the world have made a
concerted efforts to insure equal participation of Bahá'í women on
them. Female membership in the higher institutions in the Americas
and in Europe appears to be between 30 and 40 percent, while in Asia
and Africa it remains at 10 to 20 percent. The numbers of women
serving on national spiritual assemblies in the
world has increased from 34 in 1953 to 354 in 1985.
CONCLUSION
Perhaps no other religion offers a stronger scriptural basis for
women's rights or a richer history for women to draw on than does the
Bahá'í faith. Yet cultural barriers, rigidity of certain
administrative structures, conceptions of authority, and literalistic
interpretations of scripture have at times militated against the
ability of women to obtain full equality within the Bahá'í community.
Whereas all Bahá'ís in theory believe in the equality of men and
women, there is no unanimity as to what that equality means. In many
instances Bahá'í conceptions of equality have distanced them from
more radical forms of Western feminism. Whether or not Bahá'í women
will fully utilize the, potentialities of Bahá'í scriptures and
history, or whether they will be relegated to "separate but equal
spheres" that perpetuate structures of male dominance, remains to be
seen. There exists no single theory of Bahá'í feminism, but Bahá'ís,
men and women alike, are agreed on one principle: hierarchical
systems that place men above women in a divinely ordained order have
no sanction within the Bahá'í scriptures. In this respect the Bahá'í
faith is unique among revealed religions.
Notes
1. Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace. (Bahá'í Publishing
Trust, 1982), 108.
2. Abdu'l-Bahá, cited in Women (Oakham: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1986), 10.
3. Ibid., 29.
4. Ibid., Shoghi Effendi, entitled the Guardian served as head of the
Bahá'í community from 1921 to 1957
5. Tahirih is not in the theological sense the most important woman in
Babi-Bahá'í history; that distinction belongs to Navvab, the wife of
Bahá'u'lláh and Bahiyyih Khanum, his eldest daughter. Of the first
figure, however, very little has been written in English, or to my
knowledge in Persian. Bahiyyih Khanum is much better known, since she
served as the de facto head of the Bahá'í community several times.
She has usually been depicted as playing a supportive role in relation
to Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, although in the opinion of this
writer she was much more of an independent actor. She has not
attracted as much attention as Tahirih, about whom numerous (partly
fictionalized) biographies exist. Tahirih is, in a word, a legend,
and as such plays a much more important role among Bahá'ís as the
paradigm of womanhood. Both in Iran and America, her name is probably
the most popular Bahá'í name given to girls.
6. Nineteen letters make up the Arabic phrase Bismillah Ar-Rahman
Ar-Rahim, which introduces all but one of the surihs of the Quran.
Hence the number nineteen has been endowed with great spiritual
significance.
7. The Shaykhi school, founded by Shaykh Ahmad Ahsai (d. 1826) is a
small sect within Twelver Shiism, which differs from the majority in
that it denies the absolute authority of the mujtahids (ayatollahs)
and holds to a less literal understanding of the resurrection.
Nevertheless, they believed strongly in charismatic leadership and
apparently, at this time, expected the eminent appearance of the Qa'im.
Most of the early Babis were drawn from this sect. Tahirih had
left Qazvin around 1843 in order to meet Siyyid Kazim Rashti, the
Shaykhi head. He died shortly before her arrival. Supported by the
widow of Rashti, Tahirih moved into his household where she taught
classes and apparently assumed control of the more radical elements of
the community there.
8. Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal: The
Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850 (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1989), 306-7.
9. The Bab's teachings certainly aimed
at improving the condition of women by abolishing the temporary
marriage allowable in Shi'ite Islam as well as instant divorce, but
their position could hardly be regarded as equal.
10. Tahirih would,
under normal circumstances, remain veiled. She removed it only when
she had a particular point to make, no doubt because of its shock
appeal.
11. Nabil-i-A'zam, The Dawnbreakers: Nabil's Narrative of the Early
Days of the Bahá'í Revelation (Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette,
1979), 273-4.
12. After describing this incident, Abdu'l-Bahá remarks:
"These things would take place before the reality of this Cause was
revealed and all was made plain. For in those days no one knew that
the Manifestation of the Bab would culminate in the Manifestation of
the Blessed Beauty (Bahá'u'lláh) and that the law of retaliation would
be done away with, and the foundation-principle of the Law of God
would be this, that "it is better for you to be killed that to kill;"
that discord and contention would cease, and the rule of war and
butchery would fall away. In those days, that sort of thing would
happen" (Memorials of the Faithful, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette,
1971, 198-99.)
13. Tahirih's father remained convinced of her innocence as well as her
chastity, but the accusations caused him untold grief. At one point,
the prayer leader at the Friday mosque or Qazvin read a verse mocking
Mulla Salih: "No glory remains on that house/From which the hens crow
like the cocks." Mulla Salih was said to have remained silent, as
tears ran down his cheeks to his beard (Amanat, Resurrection,322).
14. Dawnbreakers, 297.
15. H. Nugaba'i, Tahirih (Teheran: 128 Badi/1972 C.E.), 60.
16. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By (Bahá'í Publishing Committee,
Wilmette), 32.
17. Ibid.
18. Bahá'u'lláh apparently proved instrumental in bringing about the
reconciliation. His subsequent actions show that he himself, while
advocating a total break with Islam, believed in nonviolent means for
attaining the Babi aims.
19. Execution by strangulation was probably chosen to avoid the
prohibition of shedding a woman's blood. Bahá'í children were later
executed in a similar manner.
20. God Passes By, 75.
21. Peter Smith, The Babi and Bahá'í Religions (Cambridge, 1987),
92-93.
22. Research Department of the Universal House of justice, Women
(Oakham: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1986), 2.
23. Ibid., 1.
24. The basic contents of the Kitab-i Aqdas can be found in A Synopsis
and Codification of the Kitab-i Aqdas (Haifa: Universal House of
justice, 1973). This author made use of a manuscript copy of the
Arabic text as well as several unpublished translations.
25. The independent investigation of truth is a paramount principle
within the Bahá'í faith and Bahá'ís are free and, indeed, enjoined to
pursue their own understanding of the sacred text. Only Abdu'l-Bahá
(d. 1921) and after him, Shoghi Effendi (d. 1957) were authorized to
make authoritative interpretations binding upon the body of believers.
This is in direct contrast to the Shi'ite practice of having
a select group of clerics (muitahids, now commonly known as
ayatollahs) who alone are deemed capable of interpreting scripture.
The laity must "imitate" (taqlid) one of these leaders in all matters
of divine law. Bahá'u'lláh has forbidden both this form of
interpretation and "blind imitation." Shoghi Effendi is regarded as
infallible in his interpretations of the sacred text, and the
Universal House of justice is considered infallible in matters of
legislation. This infallibility appears to me to be primarily an
issue of moral immaculacy, since if the House of justice makes a
decision based on misinformation, it can be changed. Whether or not
the accuracy of Shoghi Effendi's interpretations are likewise subject
to his having had correct information regarding the context of the
revealed scriptures, is an issue, which, to my knowledge, has never
been addressed.
26. R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram offers some valuable insights into
these issues in Dialogue, vol. 2, no. 1, 19-25.
27. This argument is made by Linda and John Walbridge in "Bahá'í Laws
and the Status of Men" in World Order, Fall 1984. 25-36.
28. Responses to the Walbridge thesis can be found in "A Question of
Gender:A Forum on the Status of Men in Bahá'í Law", Dialogue, Fall
1987, vol. 2, no. 1, 14-34.
29. In this regard it should be noted that the inequality of women in
Islam, as stated in the Quran, rests on economic grounds: "Men are the
protectors and maintainers of women. Because God has given the one
more than the other, and because they support them from their means.
Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in
absence what God would have them guard." (Quran 33:35).
30. In 1902 Abdu'l-Bahá urged the Chicago House of justice to rename
itself the house of spirituality in order to insure that no one should
imagine its aims to be political. Later local and national bodies
became known as spiritual assemblies and the term house of justice was
reserved for the world administrative body: the Universal House of
justice. In the early part of the twentieth century the use of most
of these terms was quite fluid. "Spiritual Assemblies," for instance,
referred to nearly every sort of Bahá'í gathering or body. in the
future local and national bodies will be called houses of justice.
31. Cited in "The Service of Women on the Institutions of the Bahá'í
Faith" an unpublished paper by Anthony Lee, Peggy Caton, Richard
Hollinger, Ma@an Nirou, Nader Saiedi, Shahin Carrigan, Jackson
Armstrong-Ingram, and Juan Cole (undated), 15-16. Much of what
follows in this section has been derived from sources cited in this
paper, although my interpretation of that material differs in that
this paper argues that the 1909 letter did not necessarily refer to
the Universal House of justice as we now understand it. While it is
true the word usage has sometimes changed within the Bahá'í writings,
I do not think this is the case here. Abdu'l-Bahá used that word in
its present technical sense as early as 1903 when writing his will and
testament.
32. Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Bahá (Haifa: Bahá'í World
Centre, 1976), 79-80.
33. Chase to Scheffler, 5/10/10, Chase Papers, National Bahá'í
Archives. Cited in Anthony Lee et al., "Service," 32. The same year
Thornton Chase wrote in a letter to Mason Remey: "women are emotional,
uncertain, unsteady, unwise in business affairs, carried away by
'devotion,' given to dreams and imaginations, and I am convinced that
as long as the Cause in this land is so largely in the hands of women,
it CANNOT PROSPER.... As long as the 'feminine element' dominates the
movement, it cannot be carried on wisely and well" Chase to Remey
January 19, 1910, National Bahá'í Archives).
34. Bruce Whitmore, The Dawning Place (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing
Trust, 1984), 36.
35. Ibid., 23-24.
36. Cited in the May 31, 1988, letter of the universal house of justice
to the national spiritual assembly of the Bahá'ís of New Zealand.
37. The universal house of justice was first elected in 1963.
38. Chase to Remey, 1119110, Chase Papers, National Bahá'í Archives.
Cited in Anthony Lee et al., "Service," 32.
39. House of Spirituality (Albert R. Windust, librarian to Board of
Consultation, Kenosha, Wis., 7/23/10, House of Spirituality Papers,
National Bahá'í Archives. Cited in Anthony Lee et al., "Service."
40. Shoghi Effendi, as well as the Universal House of justice, have
held that references to male membership in the House of justice refer
specifically to the Universal House of justice and will never be
applied to local and national bodies. The Universal House of justice
seems to hold that Abdu'l-Bahá, in his 1909 letter, was merely
clarifying the points in his 1902 letter, and that there was therefore
no real change in policy. This would presume that Abdu'l-Bahá, in his
first letter to Corinne True, did not really understand the intent of
her question and was ignorant of the controversy in Chicago, which
caused her to write to him. However, Nathan Rutstein, Corinne True's
biographer insists, "Certainly Abdu'l-Bahá was aware of what was
happening. The House of Spirituality sent Him weekly reports, and
Mirza Asadu'llah was in contact with Him" 32. The position of the
Universal House of justice is that "the law regarding the membership
of the Universal House of justice is embedded in the Text and has been
merely restated by the divinely appointed interpreters. It is
therefore neither amenable to change nor subject to speculation about
some possible future condition." They go on to say "the important fact
to remember is that in the face of the categorical pronouncements in
Bahá'í Scripture establishing the equality of men and women, the
ineligibility of women for membership of the Universal House of
justice does not constitute evidence of the superiority of men over
women" (May 31, 1988). From the standpoint of the Universal House of
justice this matter is immutable because of Bahá'í positions with
regard to authoritative interpretation and not because of any view of
the status of women as such.
41. Observations of a Bahá'í Traveller (n.p., 1908), 76.
42. R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram, "American Bahá'í Women and the
Education of Girls in Tehran, 1909-1934." In Iran (Los Angeles:
Kalimat Press, 1986), 181-210.
43. Besides carrying the general meaning "wisdom" (hikmat) has a
technical meaning in many of the Bahá'í writings. To act according to
wisdom generally infers behaving such a way as not to attract
opposition toward the Bahá'í faith in a situation where persecution or
misunderstanding might otherwise result even when it is necessary to
compromise some Bahá'í principle to do so. Acts of providence which
might otherwise be seen as negative are also described as having a
"wisdom" if they benefit the progress of the religion in some
unforeseen way.
44. Portions of this letter are contained in Women.
5-6. Unfortunately no further information or even the date are
provided regarding it, so I have been forced to be a little
speculative regarding its context. The final line quoted is a
well-known Persian proverb.
45. Peggy Caton, Equal Circles, xvi. (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press,
1987).
46. Mrs. Mahmudi had been a scientist of national prominence in
Iran, where she served as president of the Iranian School of
Meteorology. Unlike persecutions of the previous century, the Islamic
republic of Iran has shown no reticence about executing female
Bahá'ís. On June 18, 1983, ten Bahá'í women were hanged in Shiraz.
Since then all Bahá'í institutions in Iran have been disbanded.
47. Statistics on the participation of women in Bahá'í institutions
can be found in Dialogue, Summer/Fall 1986, 3:1.
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──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Women in the Bahá'í Faith
Susan Maneck
published in Religion and Women
Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1994
INTRODUCTION
The Bahá'í faith is the youngest of the world's religions.
Bahá'u'lláh, the prophet-founder of the Bahá'í faith, was born in
Iran in 1817. He claimed to be the latest messenger sent by God, an
assertion that irremediably separated the Bahá'ís from their Islamic
background. Bahá'ís believe that while all religions have been
ordained by God, the social teachings of religions have varied
according to the needs of the age in which a prophet appears. The
central theme of the Bahá'í message is the establishment of the unity
of humankind in a single global society. This necessitates the
establishment of a world government, the achievement of universal
education, the elimination of all forms of prejudice, and the
attainment of full equality of men and women. No other world religion
has been quite as explicit as the Bahá'í faith in its support of the
principle of the equality of men and women. Bahá'ís themselves
proudly assert it as one of the distinguishing features of the new
revelation. This equality does not refer solely to the spiritual
plane, for Bahá'í scriptures explicitly state that there should be
"no difference in the education of male and female in order that
womankind may develop equal capacity and importance with man in the
social and economic equation." They further assert that "women will
enter all the department of politics." Yet the understanding of this
principle varies considerably among Bahá'ís. Many support a higher
evaluation of women's traditional roles, particularly in family life,
but foresee little change in the roles themselves. Others call for a
fundamental transformation of the very structure of relations in
community life, which would incorporate values from Bahá'í
scriptures.
Regarding family life, the secretary of the Guardian of
the Bahá'í faith wrote on his behalf: "The task of bringing up a
Bahá'í child, as emphasized time and again in Bahá'í Writings, is the
chief responsibility of the mother." The Universal House of justice,
the supreme governing body for the Bahá'í world, asserts that the
corollary to this is that the financial responsibility for supporting
the family rests with the husband. The exclusion of women from the
Universal House of justice (which will be discussed later) has tended
to perpetuate arguments for "separate but equal spheres" in other
realms as well. At the same time, Bahá'í ideals for a new world order
cannot be attained without a change in societal structures, with
women playing a leading role:
The world in the past has been ruled by force, and man has dominated
over woman by reason of his more forceful and aggressive qualities
both of body and mind. But the balance is already shifting-force is
losing its weight and mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual
qualities of love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining
ascendancy. Hence the new age will be an age less masculine, and
more permeated with the feminine ideals — or, to speak more exactly,
will be an age in which the masculine and feminine elements of
civilization will be more evenly balanced.
Many Bahá'í women today have tried to hold together all of these
statements in the writings by exhibiting the "supermom" syndrome:
fulfilling their roles as wives and mothers while attempting to excel
in their chosen careers. Needless to say, this doubling of duties
creates tremendous stress for these women. Bahá'ís are often unaware
of the historical contexts in which various pronouncements regarding
women were made, and this creates great confusion regarding their
proper understanding. This issue is confounded by the fact that the
development of the Bahá'í faith in its early formative period took
place in two radically disparate cultures and continents.
Originating in Iran in the middle of the nineteenth century, the
religion spread to North America in the 1890s. While Bahá'í theology
was born in the context of a nearly homogeneous Islamic Shi'ite
culture, its administrative structure developed in the United
States. In the course of this chapter I will trace the role of women
within the Bahá'í faith from the time of its inception as the Babi
movement, through its introduction to the West, until the present
time. I will examine both the scriptural status of women as well as
the reality of their position within the Bahá'í community. While
Bahá'í communities exist in nearly all countries, I will restrict my
discussion to Iran and North America, since sufficient documentation
exists only for those two areas, and developments in those religions
have largely determined the direction taken by the rest of the Bahá'í
world.
TAHIRIH: A BAHA'I PARADIGM OF WOMANHOOD
Nearly every religion has its paradigm of the "ideal" woman. In
Hinduism this has been Sita, the perfect wife who remains faithful to
her husband at all costs. In Christianity the most eminent woman is
the Virgin Mary, symbol of motherhood. Islam has Fatimih, daughter
of Muhammad, who models the roles of mother, wife, and daughter
together. Tahirih, the most well-known woman in Babi-Bahá'í history,
presents a startling contrast to the former models. This gifted poet
of nineteenth-century Iran, far from being a dutiful daughter,
continually opposed the theological positions of her father, Mulla
Salih, a prominent Muslim cleric of Qazvin. Neither is she admired
for her success as a wife and mother, since her estrangement from her
husband resulted in her forced separation from her children as well.
In 1844 C.E. (1260 A.H.) Siyyid Ali Muhammad al-Bab secretly
revealed himself to be the Qa'im, the messianic figure expected by
the Shi'ite Muslims. He selected eighteen followers as his chief
disciples and entitled them, along with himself, the Nineteen Letters
of the Living. At the time, Tahirih was a leading figure within the
Shaykhi sect. Although she had never met the Bab, she immediately
embraced his religion and was appointed a "Letter." Tahirih, whose
given name was Fatimih Bigum Baraghani, was the daughter of the
leading clerical family of Qazvin. She had received an excellent
education in all the traditional Islamic sciences and was able to
translate many of the Bab's writings from Arabic into Persian.
Despite her background, Tahirih's writings were fiercely
anticlerical. Basing her authority on her claim to an inner
awareness of God's purpose, she instituted a number of innovations
within the Babi community. Claiming that much of Islamic law was no
longer binding upon Babis, she refused to perform the daily ritual
prayers. But her most audacious act was occasionally to appear
unveiled in gatherings of believers.
According to Abbas Amanat, this was probably the first time an
Iranian woman had considered unveiling at her own initiative. The
circle of women who gathered around Tahirih in Karbila, and later
Qazvin, Hamadan, Baghdad, and Teheran, were perhaps the first
group of women in those regions to have attained an awareness of
their deprivations as women. Yet Tahirih's activities did not
represent a woman's liberation movement in the modern sense. For
Tahirih, removing the veil was primarily an act of religious
innovation. Neither the writings of Tahirih nor the Bab concern
themselves with the issue of women's rights as such. Apparently
Tahirih experienced the Bab's revelation as liberating, whether or
not it addressed itself to the status of women per se.
Tahirih's activities created much controversy within the Babi
community itself. Many Babis did not view the Bab's revelation
as requiring a total break with the past or with Islamic law.
They regarded Tahirih's behavior as scandalous and unchaste. For
this reason, the Bab gave her the title by which she is now
known, Tahirih, meaning the "pure." The opposition of the
non-Babi ulama (Islamic clergymen) went much deeper. During the
month of Muharram, 1847, Tahirih deliberately excited their
reaction by dressing in gay colors and appearing unveiled
instead of donning the customary mourning clothes to commemorate
the martyrdom of Imam Husayn. She urged the Babis, instead, to
celebrate the birthday of the Bab, which fell on the first day
of that month. The enraged clergy incited a mob to attack the
house where she was staying. Finally the governor intervened and
had Tahirih placed under house arrest before having her sent to
Baghdad.
Accompanied by the leading Babi women of Karbila, along with a
number of devoted male followers, Tahirih set out for Baghdad,
where she continued her activities, offering public lectures
from behind a curtain. This aroused further opposition and
caused her to be imprisoned in the house of the mufti, or
leading Sunni cleric of Baghdad. But she was not tried for
apostasy, since the usual penalty for that crime (death) could
not be applied to women. Meanwhile, her family in Qazvin was
quite disturbed by her activities. Her unveiling, in
particular, led to rumors of immorality. Tahirih's father
dispatched a relative to Iraq who induced the governor to order
her return to Iran. Wherever she traveled en route, more
excitement was raised. In the village of Krand some twelve
hundred people immediately offered her their allegiance.
In Kirmanshah her presence caused such an uproar that the Babis
were attacked by a mob and driven out of the city, but not
before Tahirih had expounded the teachings before its leading
women, including the governor's wife. In Hamadan Tahirih met
with both the leading ulama and the most notable women of the
city, as well as members of the royal family. On the arrival in
Qazvin, her husband, Mulla Muhammad, from whom she had been long
estranged, urged her to return to his household. She told him:
"If your desire had really been to be a faithful mate and companion
to me, you would have hastened to meet me in Karbila and would on
foot have guided my howdah all the way to Qazvin. I would, while
journeying with you, have aroused you from your sleep of heedlessness
and would have shown you the way of truth. But this was not to be.
Three years have lapsed since our separation. Neither in this world
nor in the next can I ever be associated with you. I have cast you
out of my life forever."
Tahirih's uncle and father-in-law, Muhammad Taqi, had a reputation
for being virulently opposed to both the Babis and the Shaykhis. On
numerous occasions he incited mob violence against them. After one
of these incidents, Mulla Abdu'llah, a Shaykhi and a Babi
sympathizer, decided to retaliate. When Mulla Taqi appeared in the
local mosque to offer his dawn prayers, Mulla Abdu'llah fatally
stabbed him and fled. This led to the arrest and torture of many of
the Babis in Qazvin. Tahirih was implicated as well. In order to
stop this orgy of violence, Mulla Abdu'llah turned himself in.
Despite this the other Babis were not released and many were
executed. Tahirih escaped with the assistance of Bahá'u'lláh, who
hid her in his home in Teheran. Later, following a general call to
Babis to gather in Khurasan, Tahirih and Bahá'u'lláh traveled to a
place called Badasht, where some eighty-one Babi leaders met to
consider how they might effect the release of the Bab, who was then
imprisoned, and to discuss the future direction of the Babi community
in the face of growing persecution. At the meeting tension developed
between Tahirih — who headed the more radical Babis advocating a
complete break with Islam as well as militant defense of their
community — and the more conservative Quddus — who initially advocated
policies aimed at the rejuvenation of Islam and prudent accommodation
with religious and secular power.
Babis generally accepted Quddus as the chief of the Bab's disciples,
but Tahirih reportedly said in regards to him. "I deem him a pupil
whom the Bab has sent me to edify and instruct. I regard him in no
other light." Quddus denounced Tahirih as "the author of heresy." At
one time when Quddus was rapt in his devotions, Tahirih rushed out of
her tent brandishing a sword. "Now is not the time for prayers and
prostrations." she declared, "rather on to the battle field of love
and sacrifice."
Her most startling act was to appear before the
assembled believers unveiled. Shoghi Effendi vividly describes that
scene:
"Tahirih, regarded as the fair and spotless emblem of chastity and
the incarnation of the holy Fatimih, appeared suddenly, adorned yet
unveiled, before the assembled companions, seated herself on the
right-hand of the affrighted and infuriated Quddus, and, tearing
through her fiery words the veils guarding the sanctity of the
ordinances of Islam, sounded the clarion-call and proclaimed the
inauguration of a new Dispensation. The effect was instantaneous.
She, of such stainless purity, so reverenced that even to gaze at her
shadow was deemed an improper act, appeared for a moment in the eyes
of her scandalized beholders, to have defamed herself, shamed the
Faith she espoused, and sullied the immortal Countenance she
symbolized. Fear, anger, bewilderment swept their inmost souls, and
stunned their faculties. Abdu'l Khaliq-i-Isfahani, aghast and
deranged at the sight, cut his throat with his own hands. Spattered
with blood, and frantic with excitement, he fled away from her
face."
Unperturbed, Tahirih declared, "I am the Word which the Qa'im is to
utter, the Word which shall put to flight the chiefs and nobles of
the earth!" Tahirih, much to the dismay of many Babis, finally won
Quddus over to her point of view. He conceded that Islamic law had
been abrogated. So complete was their reconciliation that the two
departed from Badasht riding in the same howdah. When they neared
the village of Niyala, the local mulla, outraged at seeing an
unveiled woman sitting next to a man and chanting poems aloud, led a
mob against them. Several people died in the resulting clash and the
Babis dispersed in different directions. Pitched battles raged
between the Babis and government forces between 1848 and 1850 in the
Iranian province of Mazandaran and in the cities of Zanjan and
Nayriz. Tahirih remained in hiding, moving from village to village
for about a year. Around 1849 authorities arrested her on charges of
complicity in the assassination of her uncle. They brought her to
Teheran where they imprisoned her in the in house of the kalantar
(mayor). The kalantar's wife soon became very
attached to Tahirih and women again flocked to hear her discourses.
On July 9, 1850, the Bab was executed in Tabriz by order of the
shah. Two years later a small group of Babis sought to take
revenge by assassinating the shah. The attempt failed and general
massacre of Babis ensued. The government decided to execute
Tahirih as well. She was taken to a garden and strangled to death.
Her body was thrown down a well. Her last words (perhaps
apocryphal) are reported to be. "You can kill me as soon as you
like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women."
WOMEN IN THE WRITINGS OF BAHA'U'LLAH
The writings of Bahá'u'lláh unequivocally proclaim the equality of
men and women, asserting that "in this Day the Hand of divine grace
hath removed all distinction. The Servants of God and His handmaidens
are regarded on the same plane." Elsewhere he suggests that
differences between the sexes are the result of "vain imaginings" and
"idle fancies," which by the power of his might had been destroyed.
He further insists on the education of girls.
Yet Bahá'u'lláh's writings do present some problems from a feminist
standpoint. The Kitab-i-Aqdas, the book that contains Bahá'í sacred
law was written in Arabic, a language that by its nature requires the
male gender to be used for collectives. Most of its admonitions and
laws are addressed to men. A literal reading of its text would
suggest that divorce was solely the male's prerogative. Bigamy
appears to be permissible, although monogamy is preferred. Should a
marriage be contracted on the basis of a woman's virginity, and the
man subsequently discover she was not a virgin, the marriage could be
repudiated and the dowry forfeited, although Bahá'u'lláh states that
it would be preferable to conceal the matter and forgive. In certain
contexts, women are given special treatment. They are exempt from
the obligation to perform pilgrimage. They are also exempt from the
daily ritual prayers and fasting during their menses. Other
exemptions exist for pregnancy and nursing. Most problematic is
Bahá'u'lláh's reference to "the men of the House of justice," which
has been interpreted as excluding women from the highest
administrative body in the faith. This androcentric view, which a
cursory reading of the text gives, is not, it should be recognized,
the manner in which Bahá'ís have typically understood the Aqdas.
Bahá'u'lláh's son, Abdu'l-Bahá, whom Bahá'ís recognize as the
authorized interpreter of the sacred writings, stated that since
bigamy was conditioned upon equal treatment of both wives, which is
impossible, monogamy alone is permissible. Shoghi Effendi further
states that women have the same rights as men to sue for divorce and
that the requirement for virginity can certainly be applied to either
sex. Only in the case of membership in the Universal House of
justice has the male-oriented language been taken literally. When read
within the context of nineteenth-century Iran, the Kitab-i-Aqdas
presents some startling contrasts to the norms of male-female
relations. While the Aqdas makes it optional for women to perform
the obligatory prayers or fast during their menses, within Islam they
are not permitted to do so at all, since they are regarded as
ritually unclean at such times. Many of the laws contained in the
Aqdas were addressed to specific concerns raised by individuals,
usually male, within the community. For instance, Bahá'u'lláh made
parental consent a prerequisite to marriage. The question
immediately arose as to whether this was binding on men as well as
women, and if it were binding on women who had been previously
married. Bahá'u'lláh refused to make any distinction between male
and female in this regard, insisting that this regulation existed
solely for the unity of the family and had nothing to do with the
status of women. Most startling is Bahá'u'lláh's treatment of sexual
issues. The sexuality of women, in both Judaism and Islam, has been
seen as a potentially dangerous force that threatens the honor of the
family and, indeed, the whole social fabric. The duty of male
relatives to defend that honor historically has led to the strict
seclusion of women. Women who violated sexual mores were commonly
killed whereas men received the death penalty only if they had
intercourse with a married women, thus violating another man's
rights. But according to the Aqdas, adulterers are subject to a
fine, not the death penalty. Bahá'ís are even discouraged from
divorcing on the grounds of adultery. Control of sexuality in the
Aqdas is a matter of great spiritual significance, with important
social implications, but it is not treated as the glue of community
life.
Bahá'u'lláh's treatment of certain economic issues in regards to
women is somewhat more problematic and has raised a certain amount
of controversy lately. The inheritance laws presume a situation
where the male is the primary breadwinner of the family. These laws
are quite complex, but generally speaking, in the case of intestacy,
female heirs are awarded only half of what their male counterparts
receive. In this they are similar to Islamic inheritance laws,
which are, however, binding on all with or without a will. This led
some Bahá'ís to assert that the law of intestacy represents what
ought to be normative among Bahá'ís. Men retain their position as
the primary breadwinners of the family, with certain rights and
responsibilities. A patrilineal, though not patriarchal, society is
thus maintained. Such an arrangement is necessary to insure the
participation of the male in family life.
Others, including this author, have argued that since Bahá'u'lláh
requires all believers to write a will, what he has written in
regards to intestacy is exceptional, not normative. The Aqdas
describes an equitable distribution of property within the context of
nineteenth-century Iran and is thus more descriptive than
prescriptive. The Aqdas also excludes non-Bahá'ís from inheritance
entirely, a provision made in a situation of oppression and
persecution where Bahá'ís were commonly disowned by non-Bahá'í
relatives. Shoghi Effendi states that under normal circumstances it
is only fair for Bahá'ís to provide for non-Bahá'í relatives, and
emphasizes the need for all Bahá'ís to write wills to do so. The
Bahá'í claim to equality of sexes, many hold, would be meaningless if
it did not embrace the economic sphere. Perhaps the key issue in this
debate revolves around the yet unresolved issue of the treatment of
scripture. The more conservative believers interpret the sacred
writings in an absolute, timeless sense, minimizing their cultural
context. They therefore draw essential principles from all parts of
scripture equally. The more liberal understanding regards the
historical situation within which such writings were revealed to be
essential for meaningful exegesis. it holds that the most meaningful
portions of scripture are those that depart radically from the
cultural context in which they were written. In regards to gender
relations, the conservative approach leads to a situation where
equality is enjoined in the spiritual realm but social inequalities
are allowed to persist.
Another issue that might be raised with regard to Bahá'u'lláh's
writings is the use of gender in connection with the deity. It has
been argued, with good reason, that the exclusive use of male gender
in referring to God leads to a perpetuation of male dominance.
Bahá'u'lláh's legal writings were composed in Arabic, a language
which necessitated the use of the male gender when referring to God.
In order to preserve the integrity of the text, Shoghi Effendi has
stated that it is impermissible to change the gender of the writings
even in the use of prayers. Bahá'u'lláh's more mystical writings,
however, are in Persian, which has no gender. Nevertheless, these
writings have, without exception, been translated into English using
the male gender. The mystical-erotic language employed in many of
these texts, which refer to God as the beloved, might suggest that
the female gender would be more appropriate. Sufi mysticism often
depicts God as a beautiful woman and Bahá'u'lláh's Persian writings
utilize much Sufi imagery.
FROM EAST TO WEST
In 1892 Bahá'u'lláh passed away, leaving the leadership of the Bahá'í
community in the hands of his eldest son, Abdu'l-Bahá. The following
year, a Bahá'í convert of Lebanese Christian background, Ibrahim
Kheiralla, introduced the religion to the West. As was the case in
nearly all religious groups in nineteenth-century America, women
played a prominent role. Female converts generally outnumbered men
by two to one. The August 20, 1910, issue of Bahá'í News stated
"nine-tenths of the active workers in the Cause in the West are
women." Not all Bahá'í men were delighted with this state of affairs.
The same issue of Bahá'í News contained a letter from Charles Mason
Remey complaining that in most Bahá'í localities women performed the
bulk of the work, holding Bahá'í meetings in the early afternoons
when men were unable to attend. Women, he held, were content simply
to attend meetings, but men needed to do work and very few localities
were organized for "efficient work." The belief existed among many
American Bahá'í men that women ought to confine their activities to
the teaching work, leaving administrative activities to men. This
opinion was apparently reinforced by many of the Iranian Bahá'í
teachers sent to America by Abdu'l-Bahá. In the fall of 1899 Edward
Getsinger organized a "Board of Counsel" for the Bahá'ís of northern
New Jersey. Isabella Brittingham was appointed corresponding
secretary but was not a voting member of that body. In March 1900
Thornton Chase reported that Chicago had formed a "Board of Counsel"
consisting of ten men. Later that year Abdu'l-Karim Tihrani
reorganized the board, expanding its membership to nineteen and
including women. The following year Mirza Assadu'llah isfahani again
reorganized the governing body, insisting only men could be elected.
At that time the board began calling itself the House of justice.
Some Bahá'í women expressed dissatisfaction with this arrangement,
complaining that "Mirza Assad'ullah ignored us, although they were
all invited to meet with us, and he established a House of justice of
men only.
Perhaps most distressed with these developments was Corinne
True, who appealed to Abdu'l-Bahá to rescind the directive confining
membership on the House of justice to men. She received a reply from
Abdu'l-Bahá in June 1902 but refrained from sharing it with the
Chicago Bahá'ís until the fall of that year. The letter read:
"Know thou, O handmaid, that in the sight of Bahá, women are
accounted the same as men, and God hath created all humankind in his
own image, and after His own likeness. That is, men and women alike
are the revelers of His names and attributes, and from the spiritual
viewpoint there is no difference between them....
The House of justice, however, according to the explicit text of the
Law of God, is confined to men, this for a wisdom of the Lord God's,
which will ere long be made manifest as clearly as the sun at high
noon. As to you, O ye other handmaids who are enamored of the
heavenly fragrances, arrange ye holy gatherings, and found ye
Spiritual Assemblies, for these are the basis for spreading the
sweet savors of God, exalting His Word, uplifting the lamp of His
grace, promulgating His religion and promoting His Teachings, and
what bounty is there greater than this."
Earlier, Corinne True along with Ella Nash had organized a ladies'
auxiliary board which, after this letter, became known as the women's
assembly of teaching. in practice this body functioned as a parallel
institution to the Chicago house. It appears this body was able to
maintain control of much of the funds of the Chicago Bahá'í community,
perhaps because the main contributors were women. The Chicago house
frequently found itself without adequate financial support. At times
their relations were anything but harmonious.
Thornton Chase, regarded as the first American Bahá'í, strongly
opposed the participation of women on Bahá'í administrative bodies in
communities where there were men available to serve. He believed
women were much too emotional for these functions and that
Bahá'u'lláh explicitly excluded their participation as "business
controllers". Abdu'l-Bahá, however, did not seem to question
women's abilities as planners and administrators. In 1903 the
Chicago House of Spirituality determined to build a house of worship
similar to one recently begun by Bahá'ís in Ishqabad, Russia. In
1906 Mrs. True visited Abdu'l-Bahá in Palestine. At that time
Abdu'l-Bahá gave her specific instructions regarding the construction
of the Chicago temple. immediately afterward, Thornton Chase arrived
in Palestine for his own pilgrimage. In response to Mr. Chase's
questions regarding the temple, Abdu'l-Bahá responded that he had
given complete instructions to Mrs. True and that Chase should
consult with her. When it became apparent that the construction of a
house of worship constituted a more formidable task than the Chicago
Bahá'í community was then capable of undertaking. Corinne True urged
the forming of a national Bahá'í body for that purpose. With the
approval of Abdu'l-Bahá, delegates representing Bahá'í communities
throughout North America elected the Bahá'í temple unity executive
board in 1909. Of the nine members chosen, three were women, with
Corinne True serving as financial secretary. Some of the Bahá'í men
objected to this "seeming open-handed kidnapping ... of various
institutions of the Cause by women." Others defended the women,
insisting that at this stage the Bahá'í faith required the kind of
"mothering" that only women could provide. By 1925 the executive
board evolved into the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of
the United States and Canada. In 1909 Corinne True received a letter
from Abdu'l-Bahá in response to her insistent questioning on the
issue of women serving on the Houses of justice. It read:
"According to the ordinances of the Faith of God, women are the
equals of men in all rights save only that of membership on the
Universal House of justice, for, as hath been stated in the text of
the Book, both the head and the members of the House of justice are
men. However, in all other bodies, such as the Temple Construction
Committee, the Teaching Committee, the Spiritual Assembly, and in
charitable and scientific associations, women share equally in all
right with men."
Unlike Abdu'l-Bahá's previous correspondence, this letter seemed to
exclude women's participation only on the, as yet, unformed
international Bahá'í body not on the local or national houses of
justices. At least this was the understanding of Corinne True, who
again began to agitate for the election of women to the Chicago House
of Spirituality. Not all Bahá'ís agreed with this interpretation,
however, viewing it as a repetition of the Abdu'l-Bahá's ruling in
his earlier letter. Thornton Chase, irritated by True's activities,
wrote in 1910:
"Several years ago, soon after the forming of the "House of
justice"... Mrs. True wrote to Abdu'l-Bahá and asked if women
should not be members of that House. He replied distinctly, that the
House should be composed of men only, and told her that there was a
wisdom in this. It was a difficult command for her to accept, and
ever since (confidentially) there has been in that quarter and in
those influenced by her a feeling of antagonism to the House of
Spirituality, which has manifested itself in various forms....
Mrs. True received a Tablet, in which it was stated (in reply to her
solicitation) that it was right for women to be members of all
"Spiritual Gatherings" except the "Universal House of justice," and
she at once construed this to mean, that women were to be members of
the House of Spirituality and the Council Boards, because in some of
the Tablets for the House, it had been addressed as the "Spiritual
Assembly" or "Spiritual Gathering." But the House of Spirituality
could not so interpret the Master's meaning."
Further investigation on the part of the Chicago House of
Spirituality showed that elsewhere in the United States Abdu'l-Bahá
had authorized the election of both men and women to local bodies.
They therefore concluded that "in organizing Spiritual Assemblies of
Consultation now, it is deemed advisable by Abdu'l-Bahá to have them
composed of both men and women. The wisdom of this will become
evident in due time, no doubt. Apparently the members of this body
expected that when local and national bodies became official "houses
of justice" women would be removed from membership, but until then
men would have to put up with the situation. The all-male
administrative bodies finally were completely dissolved by
Abdu'l-Bahá in his visit to America in 1912.
FROM WEST TO EAST
The introduction of the Bahá'í faith to America had a profound effect
on the position of Bahá'í women in Iran. Western Bahá'ís began
traveling to Iran, where they spoke to Bahá'í gatherings. In the
opening years of the twentieth century Iranian Bahá'í women were
still excluded from participation in Bahá'í administrative
institutions, had little access to education, and, in most cases,
still wore the veil. Charles Mason Remey, who published a pamphlet
relating his experiences in Iran in 1908, observed that many Persian
Bahá'í women expressed dissatisfaction with this state of affairs and
began to agitate for change. He described one incident where he was
speaking to a Bahá'í gathering where men and women were separated by
a curtain. Remey was asked by his hostess to describe the activities
of Bahá'í women in America. As he did, the hostess became more and
more excited and finally drew back the curtain and urged the other
women present to remove their veils and join the men. The men made
room for the newcomers by withdrawing, somewhat uneasily, to the far
side of the room. Bit by bit the men regained their composure, but
then the women became rather embarrassed. Suddenly "all arose and
like a flock of affrighted birds fluttered from the room." Remey
ended his account by suggesting that Western Bahá'í women begin
corresponding with their Eastern sisters. His hope was that
eventually several would be able to settle in Iran as teachers and
physicians.
The following year Dr. Susan Moody arrived from Chicago
to join a small group of Iranian Bahá'í doctors in establishing a
hospital in Teheran. Over the next few years, Elizabeth Stewart, a
nurse, Dr. Sarah Clock, and Lillian Kappes, a teacher, joined her.
At this time a number of girls' schools were operated on an informal
basis by Bahá'í women. Since, with the assistance of American
Bahá'ís, the community had maintained a highly reputed boys' school,
Dr. Moody persuaded the executive committee of that school to adopt
one of these girls' schools as a separate department. Eventually
this school became one of the finest girls' college preparatory
schools in Iran. In 1911 Godseah Ashraf became the first Iranian
Bahá'í woman to travel to America for the purpose of pursuing
graduate work in educational psychology. She then returned to Iran
and taught in Bahá'í schools. During Abdu'l-Bahá's travels to the
West in 1911-1912, he made more explicit Bahá'í teachings with regard
to women's rights, stressing especially the need for women's
education, the lack of which he viewed as the sole reason for the
perceived inferiority of women. He deemed the education of mothers
so essential to the proper upbringing of children that he held that
the education of daughters should take precedence over that of sons.
But Abdu'l-Bahá did not restrict women's function in society to the
home. He urged women to excel in all the arts and sciences and,
further, expected their participation on an equal footing in the
political sphere as well. He stated that women's political
participation would be a prerequisite for peace. The only field
(aside from membership on the Universal House of justice) where
Abdu'l-Bahá did not extend full and equal participation was in
military endeavors, since he regarded the taking of human life
incompatible with women's role as mothers. Copies of Abdu'l-Bahá's
talks were distributed throughout Iran, and these, along with the
influence of American Bahá'ís residing in Iran, awakened Iranian
Bahá'í women to possibilities unthought of in previous generations.
Apparently they began to advocate the immediate abolishment of the
veil, as well as women's full participation in administrative
affairs. Abdu'l-Bahá was not entirely pleased with these
developments, for, besides the stress and disunity these issues were
creating within the Bahá'í community itself, he felt that actions
such as discarding the veil would bring on needless persecution in an
already volatile situation. Abdu'l-Bahá pleaded with the Iranian
women not to do anything "contrary to wisdom." Women's assemblages
at this time should be confined to educational matters so that
"differences will, day by day, be entirely wiped out, not that, God
forbid, it will end in argumentation between men and women." Their
efforts should be in the spiritual, not the political realm.
Abdu'l-Bahá would in time insure that they achieved full equality
with men in all areas. in the meantime they ought not to agitate
against the men for such changes. He chided the women for their
impatience, saying "this newly born babe is traversing in one night
the path that needeth a hundred years to tread.
While women were allowed to vote within the Iranian Bahá'í
community, it was not until 1954 that they were permitted to serve
on Bahá'í institutions. As late as the 1970s one observer could
only count two women delegates out of the more than one hundred
attending the national Bahá'í convention in Teheran. Yet when the
members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Iran
were arrested and executed in 1981, the chairperson was a woman,
Zhinus Mahmudi.
In recent years Bahá'í institutions throughout the world have made a
concerted efforts to insure equal participation of Bahá'í women on
them. Female membership in the higher institutions in the Americas
and in Europe appears to be between 30 and 40 percent, while in Asia
and Africa it remains at 10 to 20 percent. The numbers of women
serving on national spiritual assemblies in the
world has increased from 34 in 1953 to 354 in 1985.
CONCLUSION
Perhaps no other religion offers a stronger scriptural basis for
women's rights or a richer history for women to draw on than does the
Bahá'í faith. Yet cultural barriers, rigidity of certain
administrative structures, conceptions of authority, and literalistic
interpretations of scripture have at times militated against the
ability of women to obtain full equality within the Bahá'í community.
Whereas all Bahá'ís in theory believe in the equality of men and
women, there is no unanimity as to what that equality means. In many
instances Bahá'í conceptions of equality have distanced them from
more radical forms of Western feminism. Whether or not Bahá'í women
will fully utilize the, potentialities of Bahá'í scriptures and
history, or whether they will be relegated to "separate but equal
spheres" that perpetuate structures of male dominance, remains to be
seen. There exists no single theory of Bahá'í feminism, but Bahá'ís,
men and women alike, are agreed on one principle: hierarchical
systems that place men above women in a divinely ordained order have
no sanction within the Bahá'í scriptures. In this respect the Bahá'í
faith is unique among revealed religions.
Notes
1. Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace. (Bahá'í Publishing
Trust, 1982), 108.
2. Abdu'l-Bahá, cited in Women (Oakham: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1986), 10.
3. Ibid., 29.
4. Ibid., Shoghi Effendi, entitled the Guardian served as head of the
Bahá'í community from 1921 to 1957
5. Tahirih is not in the theological sense the most important woman in
Babi-Bahá'í history; that distinction belongs to Navvab, the wife of
Bahá'u'lláh and Bahiyyih Khanum, his eldest daughter. Of the first
figure, however, very little has been written in English, or to my
knowledge in Persian. Bahiyyih Khanum is much better known, since she
served as the de facto head of the Bahá'í community several times.
She has usually been depicted as playing a supportive role in relation
to Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, although in the opinion of this
writer she was much more of an independent actor. She has not
attracted as much attention as Tahirih, about whom numerous (partly
fictionalized) biographies exist. Tahirih is, in a word, a legend,
and as such plays a much more important role among Bahá'ís as the
paradigm of womanhood. Both in Iran and America, her name is probably
the most popular Bahá'í name given to girls.
6. Nineteen letters make up the Arabic phrase Bismillah Ar-Rahman
Ar-Rahim, which introduces all but one of the surihs of the Quran.
Hence the number nineteen has been endowed with great spiritual
significance.
7. The Shaykhi school, founded by Shaykh Ahmad Ahsai (d. 1826) is a
small sect within Twelver Shiism, which differs from the majority in
that it denies the absolute authority of the mujtahids (ayatollahs)
and holds to a less literal understanding of the resurrection.
Nevertheless, they believed strongly in charismatic leadership and
apparently, at this time, expected the eminent appearance of the Qa'im.
Most of the early Babis were drawn from this sect. Tahirih had
left Qazvin around 1843 in order to meet Siyyid Kazim Rashti, the
Shaykhi head. He died shortly before her arrival. Supported by the
widow of Rashti, Tahirih moved into his household where she taught
classes and apparently assumed control of the more radical elements of
the community there.
8. Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal: The
Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850 (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1989), 306-7.
9. The Bab's teachings certainly aimed
at improving the condition of women by abolishing the temporary
marriage allowable in Shi'ite Islam as well as instant divorce, but
their position could hardly be regarded as equal.
10. Tahirih would,
under normal circumstances, remain veiled. She removed it only when
she had a particular point to make, no doubt because of its shock
appeal.
11. Nabil-i-A'zam, The Dawnbreakers: Nabil's Narrative of the Early
Days of the Bahá'í Revelation (Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette,
1979), 273-4.
12. After describing this incident, Abdu'l-Bahá remarks:
"These things would take place before the reality of this Cause was
revealed and all was made plain. For in those days no one knew that
the Manifestation of the Bab would culminate in the Manifestation of
the Blessed Beauty (Bahá'u'lláh) and that the law of retaliation would
be done away with, and the foundation-principle of the Law of God
would be this, that "it is better for you to be killed that to kill;"
that discord and contention would cease, and the rule of war and
butchery would fall away. In those days, that sort of thing would
happen" (Memorials of the Faithful, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette,
1971, 198-99.)
13. Tahirih's father remained convinced of her innocence as well as her
chastity, but the accusations caused him untold grief. At one point,
the prayer leader at the Friday mosque or Qazvin read a verse mocking
Mulla Salih: "No glory remains on that house/From which the hens crow
like the cocks." Mulla Salih was said to have remained silent, as
tears ran down his cheeks to his beard (Amanat, Resurrection,322).
14. Dawnbreakers, 297.
15. H. Nugaba'i, Tahirih (Teheran: 128 Badi/1972 C.E.), 60.
16. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By (Bahá'í Publishing Committee,
Wilmette), 32.
17. Ibid.
18. Bahá'u'lláh apparently proved instrumental in bringing about the
reconciliation. His subsequent actions show that he himself, while
advocating a total break with Islam, believed in nonviolent means for
attaining the Babi aims.
19. Execution by strangulation was probably chosen to avoid the
prohibition of shedding a woman's blood. Bahá'í children were later
executed in a similar manner.
20. God Passes By, 75.
21. Peter Smith, The Babi and Bahá'í Religions (Cambridge, 1987),
92-93.
22. Research Department of the Universal House of justice, Women
(Oakham: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1986), 2.
23. Ibid., 1.
24. The basic contents of the Kitab-i Aqdas can be found in A Synopsis
and Codification of the Kitab-i Aqdas (Haifa: Universal House of
justice, 1973). This author made use of a manuscript copy of the
Arabic text as well as several unpublished translations.
25. The independent investigation of truth is a paramount principle
within the Bahá'í faith and Bahá'ís are free and, indeed, enjoined to
pursue their own understanding of the sacred text. Only Abdu'l-Bahá
(d. 1921) and after him, Shoghi Effendi (d. 1957) were authorized to
make authoritative interpretations binding upon the body of believers.
This is in direct contrast to the Shi'ite practice of having
a select group of clerics (muitahids, now commonly known as
ayatollahs) who alone are deemed capable of interpreting scripture.
The laity must "imitate" (taqlid) one of these leaders in all matters
of divine law. Bahá'u'lláh has forbidden both this form of
interpretation and "blind imitation." Shoghi Effendi is regarded as
infallible in his interpretations of the sacred text, and the
Universal House of justice is considered infallible in matters of
legislation. This infallibility appears to me to be primarily an
issue of moral immaculacy, since if the House of justice makes a
decision based on misinformation, it can be changed. Whether or not
the accuracy of Shoghi Effendi's interpretations are likewise subject
to his having had correct information regarding the context of the
revealed scriptures, is an issue, which, to my knowledge, has never
been addressed.
26. R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram offers some valuable insights into
these issues in Dialogue, vol. 2, no. 1, 19-25.
27. This argument is made by Linda and John Walbridge in "Bahá'í Laws
and the Status of Men" in World Order, Fall 1984. 25-36.
28. Responses to the Walbridge thesis can be found in "A Question of
Gender:A Forum on the Status of Men in Bahá'í Law", Dialogue, Fall
1987, vol. 2, no. 1, 14-34.
29. In this regard it should be noted that the inequality of women in
Islam, as stated in the Quran, rests on economic grounds: "Men are the
protectors and maintainers of women. Because God has given the one
more than the other, and because they support them from their means.
Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in
absence what God would have them guard." (Quran 33:35).
30. In 1902 Abdu'l-Bahá urged the Chicago House of justice to rename
itself the house of spirituality in order to insure that no one should
imagine its aims to be political. Later local and national bodies
became known as spiritual assemblies and the term house of justice was
reserved for the world administrative body: the Universal House of
justice. In the early part of the twentieth century the use of most
of these terms was quite fluid. "Spiritual Assemblies," for instance,
referred to nearly every sort of Bahá'í gathering or body. in the
future local and national bodies will be called houses of justice.
31. Cited in "The Service of Women on the Institutions of the Bahá'í
Faith" an unpublished paper by Anthony Lee, Peggy Caton, Richard
Hollinger, Ma@an Nirou, Nader Saiedi, Shahin Carrigan, Jackson
Armstrong-Ingram, and Juan Cole (undated), 15-16. Much of what
follows in this section has been derived from sources cited in this
paper, although my interpretation of that material differs in that
this paper argues that the 1909 letter did not necessarily refer to
the Universal House of justice as we now understand it. While it is
true the word usage has sometimes changed within the Bahá'í writings,
I do not think this is the case here. Abdu'l-Bahá used that word in
its present technical sense as early as 1903 when writing his will and
testament.
32. Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Bahá (Haifa: Bahá'í World
Centre, 1976), 79-80.
33. Chase to Scheffler, 5/10/10, Chase Papers, National Bahá'í
Archives. Cited in Anthony Lee et al., "Service," 32. The same year
Thornton Chase wrote in a letter to Mason Remey: "women are emotional,
uncertain, unsteady, unwise in business affairs, carried away by
'devotion,' given to dreams and imaginations, and I am convinced that
as long as the Cause in this land is so largely in the hands of women,
it CANNOT PROSPER.... As long as the 'feminine element' dominates the
movement, it cannot be carried on wisely and well" Chase to Remey
January 19, 1910, National Bahá'í Archives).
34. Bruce Whitmore, The Dawning Place (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing
Trust, 1984), 36.
35. Ibid., 23-24.
36. Cited in the May 31, 1988, letter of the universal house of justice
to the national spiritual assembly of the Bahá'ís of New Zealand.
37. The universal house of justice was first elected in 1963.
38. Chase to Remey, 1119110, Chase Papers, National Bahá'í Archives.
Cited in Anthony Lee et al., "Service," 32.
39. House of Spirituality (Albert R. Windust, librarian to Board of
Consultation, Kenosha, Wis., 7/23/10, House of Spirituality Papers,
National Bahá'í Archives. Cited in Anthony Lee et al., "Service."
40. Shoghi Effendi, as well as the Universal House of justice, have
held that references to male membership in the House of justice refer
specifically to the Universal House of justice and will never be
applied to local and national bodies. The Universal House of justice
seems to hold that Abdu'l-Bahá, in his 1909 letter, was merely
clarifying the points in his 1902 letter, and that there was therefore
no real change in policy. This would presume that Abdu'l-Bahá, in his
first letter to Corinne True, did not really understand the intent of
her question and was ignorant of the controversy in Chicago, which
caused her to write to him. However, Nathan Rutstein, Corinne True's
biographer insists, "Certainly Abdu'l-Bahá was aware of what was
happening. The House of Spirituality sent Him weekly reports, and
Mirza Asadu'llah was in contact with Him" 32. The position of the
Universal House of justice is that "the law regarding the membership
of the Universal House of justice is embedded in the Text and has been
merely restated by the divinely appointed interpreters. It is
therefore neither amenable to change nor subject to speculation about
some possible future condition." They go on to say "the important fact
to remember is that in the face of the categorical pronouncements in
Bahá'í Scripture establishing the equality of men and women, the
ineligibility of women for membership of the Universal House of
justice does not constitute evidence of the superiority of men over
women" (May 31, 1988). From the standpoint of the Universal House of
justice this matter is immutable because of Bahá'í positions with
regard to authoritative interpretation and not because of any view of
the status of women as such.
41. Observations of a Bahá'í Traveller (n.p., 1908), 76.
42. R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram, "American Bahá'í Women and the
Education of Girls in Tehran, 1909-1934." In Iran (Los Angeles:
Kalimat Press, 1986), 181-210.
43. Besides carrying the general meaning "wisdom" (hikmat) has a
technical meaning in many of the Bahá'í writings. To act according to
wisdom generally infers behaving such a way as not to attract
opposition toward the Bahá'í faith in a situation where persecution or
misunderstanding might otherwise result even when it is necessary to
compromise some Bahá'í principle to do so. Acts of providence which
might otherwise be seen as negative are also described as having a
"wisdom" if they benefit the progress of the religion in some
unforeseen way.
44. Portions of this letter are contained in Women.
5-6. Unfortunately no further information or even the date are
provided regarding it, so I have been forced to be a little
speculative regarding its context. The final line quoted is a
well-known Persian proverb.
45. Peggy Caton, Equal Circles, xvi. (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press,
1987).
46. Mrs. Mahmudi had been a scientist of national prominence in
Iran, where she served as president of the Iranian School of
Meteorology. Unlike persecutions of the previous century, the Islamic
republic of Iran has shown no reticence about executing female
Bahá'ís. On June 18, 1983, ten Bahá'í women were hanged in Shiraz.
Since then all Bahá'í institutions in Iran have been disbanded.
47. Statistics on the participation of women in Bahá'í institutions
can be found in Dialogue, Summer/Fall 1986, 3:1.
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