# When We In/visibilize Our Nobility...

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Sahar D. Sattarzadeh, When We In/visibilize Our Nobility..., bahai-library.com.
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> 
> When We
> In/visibilize                                   VAWA have provided federal grant funding
> to support relevant community-based ini-
> 
> Our Nobility . . .                              tiatives; they have also resulted in a num-
> ber of advancements, including, but not
> limited to: stronger criminal laws, housing
> SAHAR D. SATTARZADEH                            protections for victims, extending partial
> accountability for domestic violence to
> tribal lands, and inclusion of protections
> Dost thou deem thyself a small
> for the LGBTQ+ community. Reauthori-
> and puny form,
> zation of the bill expired in 2019, and at
> When thou foldest within thyself              the time of writing this, the U.S. House
> the greater world?                            of Representatives approved reauthoriza-
> Hadith (qtd. in Bahá’u’lláh, The              tion, H.R.1620 - Violence Against Women
> Call of the Divine Beloved)                   Act Reauthorization Act of 2021 (www.
> congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-
> U /                 V                   bill/1620/text) with enhancements, partic-
> ularly for Black, Indigenous, underrepre-
> In October 2011, an international faith-        sented ethnic/racial groups, two-spirit and
> based women’s rights non-governmen-             LGBTQ+ communities, which is currently
> tal organization (NGO) convened a               facing obstacles in the Senate. Responding
> press briefing for invited members of           to the long absence, avoidance, and silence
> of governmental action regarding Miss-
> the United States Congress and their
> ing and Murdered Indigenous Women,
> staff in the U.S. Capitol Building in
> Girls, Transgender, and Two-Spirit People
> Washington, D.C. The briefing was an            (MMIWGT2S), the first-ever Indigenous
> advocacy initiative to address the Vi-          person and woman of color to hold a U.S.
> olence Against Women Act (VAWA)1                Cabinet position, Secretary of the Interior
> Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), has also
> 1      Introduced by the U.S. Congress       established a new Missing and Murdered
> and signed by President Bill Clinton in         Unit (MMU) within the Bureau of Indian
> 1994, VAWA became the first form of U.S.        Affairs Office of Justice Services “to pro-
> legislation representing a multidimensional     vide leadership and direction for cross-de-
> approach to strengthening local, state, trib-   partmental and interagency work involving
> al, and federal responses to gender-based       missing and murdered American Indians
> violence and violence against women and         and Alaska Natives . . . [and] help put the
> LGBTQ+ communities, specifically relat-         full weight of the federal government into
> ing to crimes associated with dating vio-       investigating these cases and marshal law
> lence, domestic violence or intimate part-      enforcement resources across federal agen-
> ner violence, sexual assault, and stalking.     cies and throughout Indian country” (DOI
> The dual purpose of the bill is to “ensur[e]    News). On May 4, 2021, President Joe
> victim safety and offender accountabili-         Biden proclaimed May 5 as the National
> ty” (Office of Violence Against Women).           Day of Missing and Murdered Indigenous
> Throughout the years, reauthorizations of       Peoples Awareness Day, including his
> 78                  The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
> 
> since its reauthorization had expired        this point. It was my turn to approach
> that year, and therefore, was again up       the microphone and share my story.
> for reauthorization for the 2012 fiscal      “Thank you for inviting me to speak
> year. Along with three other women           about this very important issue,” I be-
> from diverse faith backgrounds, repre-       gan. “I want to clarify, however, that I
> senting religious or interfaith domestic     do not self-identify as a ‘victim’ . . .”
> violence organizations and programs, I           The consistent frequency and weight
> was invited by the NGO to partici-           of this gender-based “justice” vernac-
> pate on an Interfaith Domestic Violence      ular was already too familiar. Even
> Coalition panel for the press brief-         when considering the purpose of our
> ing. When I was introduced to speak,         gathering and the title of the federal
> however, the last words of the introduc-     law, the Violence Against Women Act,
> tion caught me off-guard: “. . . and she      for example, the emphasis clearly falls
> is a victim of domestic violence.”           on the victimized body of women, dis-
> Despite having jotted down talking       regarding the accountability of the per-
> points in advance, suddenly, I felt          petrators of that violence. Having ex-
> ill-prepared and out of place. An intense    perienced all the predetermined stages
> sensation of heat overpowered my be-         of “Battered Woman Syndrome,” while
> ing. There was no intention to present       simultaneously self-diagnosing it on
> myself as the victim on display for the      occasion, is another reminder of how
> event; to be honest, I had never actu-       such branding creates new, problematic
> ally shared my abusive relationship          opportunities for those of us who have
> history with the conveners. The emcee        endured abusive relationships to be sys-
> of the event, a white Christian clergy-      tematically beaten up and diminished
> woman introduced as a “survivor” of          by ourselves and others—even if only
> domestic violence, shared the obstacles      symbolically—over and over again. It
> she had faced due to a deficient, broken     becomes a gendered burden to bear. In
> system. It was a story she chose to tell.    attempting to identify the “disease,” we
> While there was likely no malintent          still become “diseased,” pathologizing
> on the part of the sponsoring NGO, I         our experiences of abuse. Despite the
> still could not help but feel exploited      shared anecdotes of victimization and
> and tokenized as the poster “victim”         trauma that may (or may not) have
> for the briefing. I never consented to       been expected of me at the congressio-
> such a representation. My nobility           nal hearing, I refused to go there. That
> was instantly invisibilized, flanking in     refusal was a resistance to how I was
> the shadows of my “trauma.” Never-           introduced, to how I was scripted to
> theless, there was no running away at        perform. Ironically, being introduced
> as a victim took me completely “off-
> script” of my own pre-drafted words;
> commitment to protecting Native commu-       yet, it also challenged me to create a
> nities through the reauthorization of VAWA   new narrative for myself.
> (The White House).
> When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . .                      79
> 
> Simultaneously, I had been volun-       intend to serve. While I shared my per-
> teering as a “Court Companion and          spectives during the training sessions, I
> Victim Advocate” at the “Abused            am not sure whether anyone was recep-
> Persons Program” (titles that remain),     tive to them. One thing was for certain:
> an initiative of the county health de-     the program and the court system only
> partment where I lived at the time.        viewed us as “victims.”
> Volunteering for the program was a            In such systems, we are inherently
> self-prescribed attempt to heal from       victims—before we even arrive, grant-
> leaving an abusive relationship (which     ing us the latitude to perform victim-
> many, I recognize, are not privileged to   hood; and then, there are those unwrit-
> do, due to varying circumstances) by       ten codes deciphering who deserves
> hoping to support others who had also      protection, who deserves the abuse,
> experienced domestic or intimate part-     who deserves or should be “rescued” or
> ner violence. Among the program staff       “saved,” and who should be doing the
> and our cohort of volunteers, I was the    rescuing or saving; this savior complex
> only one who had openly verbalized         extends across many interesting di-
> experiencing an abusive relationship,      mensions and planes (Cole). Becoming
> revealing a close-up understanding         a “battered woman” not only emerges
> of how “justice” falls short. While I      from a historical, patriarchal norma-
> sensed a genuine collective desire to      tive script. Its imprint deepens when
> help those victimized by abuse, the        it becomes economized, ethnicized,
> program lacked sufficient, relevant          geographized, Indigenized, and/or ra-
> educational and economic resources,        cialized, and so on, particularly when
> and most importantly, it lacked any        examined through the lens of colonial
> epistemic experience—or what Deer          histories—justifying, normalizing, and
> refers to as “the kind of knowledge        reproducing diverse forms of violence
> we gain from experiencing something;       against Indigenous, Black, ethnic/
> a visceral knowledge that can invoke       racial, and gendered bodies (for ex-
> the physical senses and the genius of      ample, see Deer; Hammad; Hartman;
> memory” (14)—from its targeted pop-        Ritchie; Sharpe). This victimhood is
> ulation, thus neglecting the insightful,   oftentimes internalized, especially for
> vital contributions that could be shared   already marginalized and underrepre-
> with the program. The dichotomies          sented communities. Ultimately, if the
> of “victim” and “offender” used in          oppression persists “long enough and
> the space are dehumanizing and di-         effectively enough, you [may] begin to
> minish the possibility of any inherent     do it to yourself . . . becom[ing] a col-
> nobility. Therefore, despite their good    laborator” (Baldwin and Giovanni 17).
> intentions, the program staff’s efforts         For five years, I was in a relationship
> seemed paternalistic and surface-level     with a man who was economically,
> at most, disregarding the diverse so-      emotionally, physically, psychological-
> ciocultural contexts of the people they    ly, and spiritually abusive towards me.
> 80                  The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
> 
> My former partner’s abuse was fueled         a silent corner, hidden from view . . .
> by evident preexisting insecurities that     until dear, beloved souls gave me “per-
> swiftly avalanched from the “intel” he       mission” to share it. The companionate
> collected during his frequent violations     words of Saidiya Hartman on being
> of my privacy, including reading my          influenced by DuBois’s use of memoir
> journal entries about my interrogations      in The Souls of Black Folk and Dusk
> of uninvited advances from men and the       of Dawn—inspired by Chandler and
> details of a gang rape I had endured just    Spivak’s terminology—confirmed that
> a year prior to meeting him. His mother      this “autobiographical example . . .
> had tragically passed away from ad-          is not a personal story that folds onto
> vanced ovarian cancer during the early       itself; it’s not about navel gazing, it’s
> weeks of our courtship. Coincidentally,      really about trying to look at histori-
> I was diagnosed with an early stage of       cal and social process and one’s own
> ovarian cancer two weeks following           formation as a window onto social and
> her earthly departure. Oddly enough,         historical processes, as an example of
> I assumed my cancer diagnosis would          them” (Saunders 5). Lorde’s reference
> serve as a form of protection or shield      to her personal story in The Cancer
> from the abuse, perhaps an unyielding        Journals as “not academic,” but rather
> bond between us; but instead, it swiftly     as “a piece of life-saving equipment”
> became irrelevant, invisible. Our rela-      that “kept [her] alive during the time
> tionship ended in 2009, and two years        that [she] wrote it” (Lorde et al. 11),
> later—two months after that congres-         likewise encouraged me to reconcile
> sional press briefing—I was formally         and feel at ease to open up and share
> diagnosed with having post-traumatic         this story; the urge to share this now is
> stress disorder (PTSD). Two years lat-       simply because it finally manifested as
> er, we attempted to give the relationship    a rupture I needed to address. And in
> another try, but it had already failed the   the words of Lorde, “now it’s out there,
> first time. The relationship was an ac-      the umbilical cord is cut, it has a life of
> celerant to a lingering disbelief in my      its own” (2). It is no longer “mine,” nor
> own nobility. All of my relationships—       does it belong to me.
> regardless of shape or form—were                 Silence formerly functioned as a
> mirrors of a distorted reality, reflecting   protective armor—for my own guilt
> the neglect of my spiritual self.            and shame and for my former partner,
> To be truthful, it has taken me well     from the backbiting, verbal abuse,
> over a decade to share this personal         and judgments projected from others
> experience openly and publicly. Obvi-        in their attempts to slander his char-
> ously, I am not the first to share such      acter. In addition to unlearning unjust
> an account; nor will I be the last, un-      sociocultural norms and other forms
> fortunately. Initially resistant to being    of socialization (we do not often free-
> the center of attention, to be centered      ly speak about “these kinds of issues”
> at all, this story was safeguarded in        in Azeri/Iranian/Persian households),
> When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . .                       81
> 
> gossip and backbiting, unfortunately,          for justice and healing they evoke.
> had already emerged among a number             Even those secret well-intentioned
> of those privy to this particular slice of     “intervention” plans among a few clus-
> my life. Even in the deafening secrets         ters of friends deeply rooted in social
> and silence, I heard people talking.           justice activism, which I learned of
> Aside from the desire to avoid being           years later, backfired in unhealthy, tox-
> “exposed” to and judged by the world, I        ic modes, even dissolving friendships.
> had no interest in presenting the self-in-     All I desired was to avoid being (mis)
> flicted image of damaged “victim” or           represented or replicating the “danger
> recovering “survivor.” Both “victim”           in damage-centered [narratives] . . . [as
> and “survivor” still give way/weight to        a] pathologizing approach in which the
> the experience of trauma, albeit differ-        oppression singularly defines a com-
> ently.2 The thought of others projecting       munity” (Tuck 413), such as women
> such a negative status upon me felt            in violent relationships. Tuck suggests
> disempowering. In the same instance,           considering desire-based frameworks
> there was no desire on my part to triv-        instead.
> ialize or delegitimize the injustice or           My desire to seek liberation from
> diminish the urgency of domestic/in-           the entanglements and fetters of dam-
> timate partner/gender-based violence.          age and victimhood is neither unique
> Similarly, I did not wish to undermine         nor limited to my personal experiences
> the genuine empathy and aspirations            with intimate partner, domestic, gen-
> der-based, and sexual violence. There
> 2      For me, “survivor” has been asso-    are extensive systems and structures in
> ciated with “surviving”: cancer, rape, and     our societies where a duality of visibi-
> domestic violence. Like “victim,” there-       lized trauma and invisibilized nobility
> fore, I believe “survivor,” as a construct,    is reproduced and normalized, particu-
> still anchors an individual’s trauma or pain   larly in the realm of justice. Many have
> and centers the damage or scars there-         created—through comedy and humor,
> from, limiting it to the human body—not
> writing, research, the arts, and social
> the capacities of the soul—therefore, em-
> action—humanizing narratives that
> phasizing the scars that remain from such
> experiences, not the healing, growth, and
> push back against one-sided or domi-
> progress. Thus, instead of transcending our    nant narratives of victimhood (for ex-
> pain and suffering—accepting it happened,       ample, see @regcharging (Charging);
> grieving it, and so on—we become stuck         Bida; Dougher; Madden; Noah; Rodri-
> in limbo within a projected and/or internal-   guez). Like Tuck, “I invite you to join
> ized, one-dimensional posture of survivor      me in re-visioning [representations] in
> of our own individual and collective mak-      our communities not only to recognize
> ing. There is no desire on my part to deny     the need to document the effects of op-
> the name “survivor” for those who wish to      pression on our communities but also
> claim it; it is solely a personal preference   to consider the long-term repercussions
> not to be perceived as a survivor or surviv-   of thinking of ourselves as broken”
> ing. Living is also an option.
> 82                   The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
> 
> (409)—moving beyond satisfaction           it? What examples in the world could
> with representations of desire—mov-        I learn and draw from? How can we
> ing along to recognition of and belief     authentically and humbly engage in
> in our inherent spiritual reality—visi-    social action and the relevant discours-
> bilizing nobility for ourselves and our    es of society to “assail” the injustices
> communities, especially in numerous        and inequities of this world, while
> discourses about (in)justice and (in)eq-   concurrently amplifying the spiritual
> uity. Most importantly, in this journey    reality—the nobility (and therefore,
> of renewal and reimagination, this vis-    constructive resiliency) of the soul?
> ibilizing of nobility demands that we          These questions have since evolved
> look at members of our human family        into two broader questions that I am
> who endure injustices and inequities—      still aiming to “perfect.” First, how can
> in varying degrees—with new eyes.          we reconceptualize and participate in
> They are not merely damaged bodies         a body politic where we visibilize and
> or spiritually disembodied beings, as      center nobility in public discourses and
> too frequently depicted, but so much       social actions on the various entangled
> more. They are souls, embodiments of       dimensions of injustice and inequity,
> nobility or noble-embodied beings.         including academic and activist spaces
> (and their convergences)? Second, how
> R            R          ,         do exemplary narratives of constructive
> V           J        /N               resilience help us honor and recognize
> the nobility of peoples and communi-
> My soul simultaneously aches and           ties without delegitimizing and deny-
> smiles whenever I ponder the Bahá’í        ing the social forces of oppression that
> perspective on the relationship be-        exist and persist in the world? These
> tween our inherent nobility and justice:   questions, I imagine, are only a few of
> “Justice is a noble quality and injus-     those I will live with all the days of my
> tice an iniquity” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris     life, on this earthly plane, attempting to
> Talks 79), particularly due to the hor-    humbly explore and learn from.
> rific accumulation of dehumanization           It is my belief that visibilizing the
> we are currently enduring. Learning        inherent nobility of human souls is
> this, however, has also forced me to       a key ingredient in the possibility of
> question how, for decades, I could con-    reimagining resistance as constructive
> ceive of the inherent spiritual nobility   resilience. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá writes:
> of others and their justice while deny-
> ing my own. But if “[j]ustice is a no-       In the world of existence there
> ble quality,” what is true nobility, and     is nothing so important as spirit,
> what role(s) does it play in response to     nothing so essential as the spirit of
> oppression, (in)justice, and (in)equity?     man. The spirit of man is the most
> What does nobility look like in the face     noble of phenomena . . . the col-
> of oppression, and would I recognize         lective center of all human virtues
> When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . .                      83
> 
> . . . the cause of the illumination      and hypervisibility of injustice and
> of this world. (Promulgation             inequity on a number of intersecting
> 239–40)                                  levels. The global COVID-19 pandem-
> ic, combined with a rampant, height-
> Imagine if we all saw one another          ened response to worldly injustices of
> through this lens: as spirits, as nuclei   anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, an-
> of human virtues, as radiant lights—       ti-Asian violence, extremes of poverty
> even amidst pain and suffering. When        and wealth, vaccine apartheid, xeno-
> reflecting on this imagery, I cannot       phobia, racism, and patriarchy, and the
> help but reflect on the analogies de-      list goes on—despite their persistence
> scribed by the Central Figures of the      for centuries—have been characterized
> Bahá’í Faith regarding the entangled       by varying calls for public action. Most
> relationship between the most globally     of these movements have been moti-
> oppressed communities—as the “pupil        vated by the necessities of collective
> of the eye,”—a metaphor distinctly in-     justice, while others have been fueled
> troduced by Bahá’u’lláh for people of      by demands for individual liberties.
> African descent—as portals of light,       Mass public outcry is usually synon-
> and Indigenous peoples as beacons of       ymous with or derived from—but not
> light who will become “so illumined as     limited to—terms and concepts such as
> to enlighten the whole world” (Tablets     activism, boycott, demonstration, pro-
> of the Divine Plan 32). This spiritual     test, resistance, and social movements,
> reality cannot be reduced to coinci-       for example. The most prolific scholars
> dence. What if narratives of injustice     of “social movement studies,” par-
> and inequity faced by communities          ticularly those educated and residing
> were paralleled by these noble quali-      within a factory-like white, patriarchal
> ties they possess? How might a nobil-      Euro-American system of formal high-
> ity framework yield new opportunities      er education, limit their definitions of
> for reimagining noble souls and their      collective action to criteria character-
> capacities of constructive thought and     istic of contention and oppositionality.
> action in the face of injustice? While     These conditions are clearly the most
> I fully advocate the necessity of un-      mediatized and popularized, but there
> earthing and studying all facets of        are also more humanizing elements of
> oppression, stopping at the paralysis      social change that are almost always
> of damage or victimhood from such          hidden from view. While the study of
> oppression seems incomplete, falling       social movements is important, these
> short, and even a missed opportunity.      criteria limit the possibilities of social
> Why not, rather, prepare and seek out      change and the inherent capacities and
> pathways of transcendence through          contributions of humankind, especially
> that oppression?                           the persistent efforts of those catego-
> Today, more than ever, we are im-       rized and segmented as “marginalized”
> mersed in a cumulative amplification       “oppressed,” “underserved,” and so on.
> 84                 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
> 
> Such criteria visibilize negative imag-     disadvantage, dysfunction, and differ-
> ery of collective action, while invisibi-   ence (80).
> lizing the inherent nobility of individ-        In a message to Bahá’í students
> uals and communities engaged in such        denied access to higher education in
> action and their pursuit of justice and     Iran, the Universal House of Justice
> equity. The intensity of discourses and     addressed the historical oppression of
> actions revolving around racial injus-      their Bábí and Bahá’í spiritual ances-
> tice, anti-Indigeneity, and anti-Black-     tors, as well as their complementary
> ness in the United States and globally      inheritance of a constructively resil-
> reveals that this trend in visibilizing     ient spiritual capacity to advance be-
> suffering while invisibilizing nobility      yond that same oppression: “You, too,
> is nothing new. However, the case for       demonstrate such noble qualities and,
> naming and centering inherent nobility      holding fast to these same principles,
> is a novel, Bahá’í-inspired perspective.    you belie the slander purveyed against
> In the process of spiritually excavat-   your Faith” (9 Sept. 2007).
> ing my inherent nobility, I was pulled          The Universal House of Justice also
> by the arts and scholarship that would      notes the centuries-long lives of Afri-
> help me on this journey. In my re-          can Americans in the United States as
> search, I encountered many artistic and     evidence of constructive resilience and
> scholarly critiques of the hypervisibili-   calls upon the African American com-
> ty of communities and peoples’ trauma       munity to continue “to see in the recent
> and victimhood, as well as arguments        turmoil opportunity rather than obsta-
> justifying the necessity to underscore      cle” (4 Feb. 2018). Constructive resil-
> and center their suffering. There were       ience, therefore, requires utilization of
> also works that visibilize the nobility     the spiritually inherent noble qualities
> of communities that endure injustice        of souls to “transcend” oppression,
> and how they constructively respond         perceive what is possible “beyond the
> to systematic oppression. Represen-         distress of difficulties [and obstacles]
> tations that piqued my attention were       assailing them,” and transform them-
> those uniquely captured moments that        selves and their communities through
> humanize and celebrate individual and       deeds that advance “spiritual and so-
> collective joy, self-care, and preserva-    cial development.” The beauty of con-
> tion in the midst of suffering just as       structive resilience is its reliance upon
> much as they shed light on anger, grief,    an internal power of the spirit of peo-
> and pain. They highlight the construc-      ples and their communities. It also sur-
> tive resilience of communities popu-        passes the quantitative frontiers of “re-
> larly portrayed on a default setting of     silience” that have been amplified by
> “broken,” disrobed of our nobility and      social actions and discourses emerging
> costumed in descriptors of deficiency       across social media spaces, implying
> or what Walter (2016) calls the “five       that #StillHere is commonly (mis)
> ‘Ds’ of data”: disparity, deprivation,      interpreted and limited to a physical
> When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . .                       85
> 
> resilience. Furthermore, constructive       of Lakota women, men, and children at
> resilience is by no means restricted to     Wounded Knee in 1890 (Brings Plen-
> the Bahá’í community; nor is there a        ty). Sørensen maps constructive resis-
> singular method or understanding in         tance, referring to “initiatives in which
> which constructive resilience can be        people start to build the society they
> achieved (Karlberg).                        desire independently of the dominant
> Sumud (‫)دومص‬, an Arabic concept          structures already in place” (49) and re-
> meaning steadfastness and “resilient        lies on Vinthagen’s definition, where-
> resistance,” can be traced back to the      by constructive resistance is understood
> tenth century. Palestinian women use        to “transcend the whole phenomenon
> sumud as an explanation of their daily      of being-against-something, turning
> existence and collective empowerment,       into the proactive form of constructing
> particularly through a reaffirmation of       ‘alternative’ or ‘prefigurative’ social
> their identity, a “preservation” of Pal-    institutions which facilitate resistance”
> estinian culture, and a “nurturance”        (7). These are only but a few concep-
> of the Palestinian community (Ryan).        tual and theoretical frameworks that,
> holt explains how Rezilience (a com-        like constructive resilience, visibilize
> bination of the slang term for reserva-     nobility, the highest aspirations of in-
> tion, “rez,” and resilience), an Indige-    dividuals and communities facing op-
> nous worldview, is an active teaching       pression in its various forms.
> and learning practice for Indigenous           The Universal House of Justice, in
> communities to “reclaim, relearn, and       another message, praises the Iranian
> reconnect with their ancestral ways of      Bahá’í community’s establishment of
> being” (72). Rezilience is an example       the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education
> of Vizenor’s reference to Indigenous        (BIHE) in response to the government’s
> survivance (Vizenor, Fugitive Poses;        systematic denial of higher education to
> Vizenor, Survivance; Vizenor and Lee),      all its Bahá’í citizenry as representative
> a “moving beyond [Indigenous] basic         of “actions [that] are not confined to ef-
> survival in the face of overwhelming        forts to seek justice” (1 Oct. 2014). Fur-
> cultural genocide to create spaces of       thermore, the establishment of the BIHE
> synthesis and renewal” (Vizenor, Man-       as an “unrelenting pursuit of knowledge
> ifest Manners 53). Survivance echoes        is perhaps one of the most outstanding
> the sacredness of the Lakota word tak-      examples of constructive resilience in
> ini, which is often simply translated to    the modern age.” Alternative peaceful
> survivor, but it means “to come back to     measures to sustain teaching and learn-
> life.” Takini, is about restoring Indige-   ing within formal higher education have
> nous communities and moving beyond          similarly been implemented through
> survival, recalling stories of the ances-   “street academies” in Turkey (Aktas et
> tors and the historical trauma inherited,   al.), underground universities in Kosovo
> most associated with the U.S. Army’s        (Sommers and Buckland) and Poland
> Seventh Calvary massacre of hundreds        (Garlinski), and educational programs
> 86                  The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
> 
> held in private homes, religious institu-    computer screens, my therapist assigned
> tions, and offices for students in Pales-      me homework: “Recite a prayer every
> tine (Zelkovitz).                            morning to recognize your own nobili-
> ty.” Mind. Blown. Her instructions were
> V              N                       so simple, yet profoundly humbling.
> M                              Pray for my own nobility?!? Is that
> actually a thing? Prayers for the ances-
> While understanding the constructive         tors, detachment, tests and difficulties,
> capacity of the soul outside of my-          healing, steadfastness, (in)justice, love,
> self, the struggle to see it within me       praise of the Creator, my mother and
> was still very real. After completing        father, my brother, my profession . . .
> a remote session with my psychother-         were among the primary motivations
> apist, the fog gradually began to clear      for prostration and devotion. Never had
> for me. Several years had passed since       praying for my own nobility (let alone
> my PTSD diagnosis, while trudging            recognizing it) been on my mind up to
> along an evolving journey of disen-          that point. Ever since that moment, I
> tanglement from its fetters. All this        recite the following from The Hidden
> time, justice and equity had served          Words of Bahá’u’lláh daily as part of
> as dual interlocking aspirations driv-       my morning meditation routine:
> ing my activism, teaching, research,
> and writing, but my attempted efforts           O Son of Spirit!
> were constantly falling short. Even my         I created thee rich, why dost thou
> determination to highlight narratives          bring thyself down to poverty?
> about the constructive, transformative         Noble I made thee, wherewith
> capacities of “marginalized” and “op-          dost thou abase thyself? Out of the
> pressed” peoples and communities               essence of knowledge I gave thee
> seemed rather oxymoronic. Externally,          being, why seekest thou enlight-
> I was wholeheartedly committed to              enment from anyone beside Me?
> exposing (in)justice and the nobility          Out of the clay of love I molded
> among the hearts, minds, and souls of          thee, how dost thou busy thyself
> “the oppressed” (and the oppressors),          with another? Turn thy sight unto
> but it was in competition with the inter-      thyself, that thou mayest find Me
> nal invisibilization of my own nobility,       standing within thee, mighty, pow-
> as well as a forgetfulness in the pursuit      erful and self-subsisting. (#13,
> of justice for myself.                         From the Arabic)
> Clearly, this sudden pull to visibilize
> nobility was new and uncomfortable,            O Son of Spirit!
> especially when related to my own              Noble have I created thee, yet thou
> being. Just before our first session had       hast abased thyself. Rise then unto
> concluded, and with more than thir-            that for which thou wast created.
> teen thousand kilometers between our           (#22, From the Arabic)
> When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . .                       87
> 
> Reciting these sacred words and ab-         with a tradition of African American
> sorbing their meaning is equivalent to      thought that was significantly advanced
> looking into a new, undistorted mirror      by Du Bois and that attempted to al-
> that still requires daily meditation and    chemize a history of oppression into a
> application of my interpretation of         source of pride and inspiration” (13).
> those words into action in every phase      If the material or physical frame of
> of my life. In other words, I am still      our bodies and the damage, harm, and
> working on truly seeing the nobility        trauma inflicted upon them become
> and justice of my soul.                     our primary point of focus, then we
> Challenging the historically situated   reproduce the same gaze that justifies
> Northwestern Hemispheric concept            oppression—a perception that humans
> and identity of nobility (Leonhard          are reduced to soulless bodies. We then
> and Wieland), this spiritual dimension      lose sight of the core reality of the
> of nobility—not unique to the Bahá’í        identity of our souls and their capac-
> teachings alone, not only reveals the       ities of inherent nobility to withstand
> power of our spiritual ancestral lin-       oppression and to do so constructively.
> eage, but also foreshadows the future
> of humankind and its inherent capac-         O     N       S           A
> ities to heal, transcend oppression,                           F
> and advance intergenerationally. “A
> striking aspect of Bahá’í belief,” Arb-     It is my sincerest hope that calling for
> ab purports, “is the extraordinary op-      the visibility of nobility (and its inher-
> timism it displays about humanity’s         ent relationship to the soul) is not mis-
> future. Such hopefulness would be un-       taken for a desire to avoid, dehumanize,
> tenable were it not for a profound con-     erase, invisibilize, silence, minimize,
> viction, which arises from the Faith’s      or disconnect the social realities of
> teachings, that the human being was         bodies or trauma, injustice, and inequi-
> created noble” (175–76). Constructive       ty in this world—nor to essentialize or
> resilience, therefore, is a sustainable,    homogenize those social realities. Nor
> futuristic, intergenerational response to   am I advocating for a partial visibility,
> oppression that is associated with our      but rather, inviting you—all of us—to
> spiritual afterlives.                       consider one that is whole—one that
> Similarly, Smith’s argument for         captures both the corporeal and spiritu-
> “centering the ‘pupil of the eye’” also     al reality of humankind. For instance,
> exemplifies a noble spiritual station in    “[i]dentify[ing] the achievement and
> defiance of an unceasing racial oppres-     exhilaration in [B]lack life is not to
> sion endured for well over five centu-      mute or minimize racism . . . there is
> ries. According to Smith, “interpreta-      a spiritual majesty of joy in suffering”
> tions of the ‘pupil of the eye’ metaphor    and an invitation to not only possibly
> that fix upon the spiritual perceptive-     feel Black “pain but also the beauty
> ness of [B]lack people are in keeping       of being human” (Perry). In a relevant
> 88                  The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
> 
> letter addressed to the U.S. Bahá’í          me along the way. One of my favorite
> community regarding intensifying ra-         guided meditations of Audre Lorde—
> cial injustices, the National Spiritual      “[T]hat visibility which makes us most
> Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United        vulnerable is that which also is the
> States wrote: “The language we use           source of our greatest strength” (60)—
> and the attitudes we take, while not ig-     comforts and assures me of the spiritu-
> noring the harsh realities that exist in     al implications of being clothed in “no-
> the world, should appeal to the nobler       bility,” even when feeling naked. We
> aspirations of our fellow-citizens” (25      are, after all, spiritually destined to be
> Feb. 2017). Accordingly, this is not an      “dressed in royal robes, to walk in glory
> attempt to deny or delegitimize trauma,      for ever and ever” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Se-
> injustice, and inequity and their multi-     lections 317). We all are created noble,
> tudinous effects on peoples and groups,       and nobility looks divine on us, would
> but to celebrate and center fellow souls     you not agree? From the point of our
> that are created to endure and move          conception—before our physical birth,
> through and break free of the cages of       and beyond—through our spiritual af-
> such suffering.                               terlives/futures, our inherent nobility
> May this be an invitation to all of       continues to insist, persist, and trans-
> us—especially to all the souls whose         form into a new garment:
> bodies have been and continue to
> feel or be treated as branded, broken,         O Thou Provider, O Thou Forgiv-
> damaged, erased, inferior, invisible,          er! A noble soul hath ascended
> and/or—as non-human, as well as                unto the Kingdom of reality, and
> those souls who, through their words,          hastened from the mortal world
> thoughts, or deeds, choose to read, see,       of dust to the realm of everlasting
> and engage with souls as damaged,              glory. Exalt the station of this re-
> non-human, and ignoble—to visibi-              cently arrived guest, and attire this
> lize nobility. Please join me in this          long-standing servant with a new
> ever-evolving journey to consider why          and wondrous robe.
> and how visibilizing nobility helps us           O Thou Peerless Lord! Grant
> reimagine resistance as constructive           Thy forgiveness and tender care
> resilience, to realize and celebrate           so that this soul may be admitted
> our individual and collective inherent         into the retreats of Thy mysteries
> nobility, and to actualize our spiritual       and may become an intimate com-
> reality in our afterlives and our futures.     panion in the assemblage of splen-
> It is my hope that these closing            dours. Thou art the Giver, the Be-
> words and this invitation do not at all        stower, the Ever-Loving. Thou art
> suggest that I have forgotten my vul-          the Pardoner, the Tender, the Most
> nerability in feeling exposed. Beloved         Powerful. (#11, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
> revolutionary spiritual ancestors have         Prayers of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá)
> been holding my hand, accompanying
> When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . .                 89
> 
> Although far from completing the work of visibilizing nobility, what keeps me
> going is knowing we were created noble, and our nobility never dies . . .
> 
> W       C
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> — *When We In/visibilize Our Nobility... (Used by permission of the curator)*