# Women in the Baha'i Faith

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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 Baha'i Faith (Used by permission of the curator)*