What Do Baha'is Believe about Gender?
Exported from Holy-Writings.com on 2026-06-22 - 1 clipping

Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Gleibys L. Buchanan, What Do Baha'is Believe about Gender?, bahai-library.com.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

What Do Bahá'ís Believe about Gender?

Gleibys L. Buchanan

published in Washington Post

2011-04-15

Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, stated that, “Women and men have been and will always be equal in the sight of God,” and Baha’is believe this equality must be manifested as a social reality, indeed, as an essential element to the creation of a peaceful world. Thus, the Baha’i Faith categorically upholds the principle of the equality of men and women and equal participation of women in all areas of human endeavor.

Because religion plays such a significant role in shaping social values, it is in a unique position to actively speak out against the oppression and discrimination against women. It must be acknowledged that the perversion of religion has been a primary cause of social disintegration, intolerance, hatred, sexism, poverty, oppression and warfare down through the ages. Religion must be free of prejudice and discrimination if it is to be an agent of justice and a positive force towards social development.

In working to eradicate gender discrimination, Baha’is adopt an evolutionary view of the role religion has played in the emancipation of women. It’s clear that in the early years of their history, the world’s religious traditions have originally encouraged the advancement and participation of women in society. However, in low periods of their development, forces of extremism have worked to oppress women.

Baha’is apply the principle of equality to the manner in which they strive to foster the advancement of women in their communities. In their endeavors, they cling to the image in the Baha’i Writings of humanity as a bird in which one wing is woman and the other man. Unless both wings are strong and well-developed, the metaphor goes, the bird will not be able to fly.

“The development of women,” wrote Janet A. Khan in Religion as an Agent for Promoting the Advancement of Women at All Levels, “is considered vital to the full development of men and is seen as a prerequisite to peace. Hence, the members of the Baha’i community, male and female alike, and its democratically elected administrative councils share a strong commitment to the practice of the principle of equality in their personal lives, in their families, and in all aspects of social and civic life.”

The Baha’i faith has no clergy. The community’s affairs are organized by the full participation of its members and administered by democratically elected nine-member governing bodies at the local, national, regional and global levels. Women and men serve together at each administrative level, except for the Universal House of Justice, a body which oversees the Baha’i activities on a global level. Service on this institution is restricted by Baha’i scripture to men. Although the reason for this limitation is not provided, the Baha’i scriptures specify that it will become unmistakably clear in the future at a more advanced stage of social understanding, and that it will not contradict the reality of gender equality. This is confirmed by the host of women who were appointed to serve as Hands of the Cause of God, the highest spiritual rank attainable by Baha’i individuals. Furthermore, the daughter of Baha’u’llah, Bahiyyih Khanum, directed the affairs of the global Baha’i community from 1921 to 1924—the first time in recorded history that a woman was the acting head of a world religion.

Baha’is who champion gender equality look back to the inspiring example of Tahirih, an early follower of their faith. She was a highly educated and accomplished poet who broke the bonds that enslaved women in nineteenth century Persia. Tahirih was imprisoned for her religious beliefs and eventually strangled by her captors. Before her death, she told her executioners, “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.”

METADATA

Views9074 views since posted 2011-11-28; last edit 2022-02-04 13:53 UTC;

previous at archive.org.../buchanan_bahais_believe_gender
Language
English
Permission
fair use
Share

Shortlink: bahai-library.com/1617
Citation: ris/1617

select Collection:
Archives
Articles
Articles-unpublished
Audio
Bibliographies
BIC
Biographies
Books
Chronologies
Compilations
Compilations-NSA
Compilations-personal
Documents
East-asia
Encyclopedia
Essays
Etc
Excerpts
Fiction
Glossaries
Guardian
Histories
Introductory
Letters
Maps
Music
Newspapers
NSA-documents
NSA-letters
Personal
Pilgrims
Poetry
Presentations
Resources
Reviews
Scripts
Software
Statistics
Study
Talks
Theses
Transcripts
Translations
UHJ-documents
UHJ-letters
Video
Visual
Writings

home

sitemap

series

chronology

search:
author

title

date

tags

adv. search
languages

inventory

bibliography

abbreviations

links

about

contact

RSS

new
-- What Do Baha'is Believe about Gender? (Used by permission of the curator)