Two newly translated discussions on equality of women and men.

Two newly translated passages by the Master on the equality of women and men. 

The first discussion has implications not just for that principle but for equal rights (which Abdu'l-Baha names as a Baha'i principle as well). Principle does not win out by compulsion, he asserts, but by the "acquisition of virtues" gained by education. In the second, the Master demonstrates how to deal with what we now would call an anti-feminist. By mixing humour with drama (she was a famous actress after all) in with the argument, He gets the point across without acrimony. At one point, He reminds me of what one of my professors did to our class. Whenever one of us started to answer with, "I feel..." he would cut them off, saying, "We are not interested in how you feel, we want to know what you think, and why."

Discussion One

"Women must educate themselves and strive to acquire virtues. Moreover, they must win their rights through education, not by force or obstruction, for it befits the wise to seek equality through prudent and educative means. Indeed, the wise seek to secure their rights through the acquisition of virtues, while the ignorant attempt to do this through compulsion. For instance, when a child reaches the age of adolescence, all testify to his growth and maturity." (Abdu'l-Baha, 19 December, 1912, in Mirza Mahmud Zarqani, Mahmud's Diary, volume two, Abdu'l-Baha in Europe, 1912-1913, translated by Adib Masumian, George Ronald, Oxford, 2024, p. 35)

Discussion Two

4 January: Conversation with an Anti-Suffragist Woman

Saturday, 4 January 1913

Blomfield Residence, 97 Cadogan Gardens

London, England

The following record of this conversation is taken from an unpublished diary letter by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab to Harriet Magee dated 4 January 1913.

* * *

Then the curtain is raised again and a celebrated actress and also a teacher of elocution is sitting before the Master. She teaches Lady Blomfield's daughter, Nouri Khanoum, elocution and public speaking. Our Lady is also present. She is welcomed by the Master and somehow the question of suffragists comes in. She emphatically declares that she is an anti-suffragist. She does not believe in women getting votes and she is working against the realization of such a dreadful thing! The Master is of course amused and tells the lady you have found an enemy, a foe worthy of your steel. "What is your belief in proof in working against suffrage?" The Master asks. "Oh! I feel that women must attend to the duties of the home and child rearing." She answers.

"But here is not a question of feeling, we like to have some evidence for your opposition. Suppose a judge is sitting in the chair and you and a suffragist are going to decide your case. The suffragist would say, that the plant and animal life already enjoy suffrage. There are male and female, their rights are equal and they are never fighting who is superior or who is inferior, because they receive the same kind of natural education. But in the human Kingdom there is this fight. In the vegetable kingdom only the female is productive; the male is barren. A female palm tree yields dates; a female fig tree produces figs; a female mulberry tree gives fruits etc; while the male trees are good-for-nothing. What will you say to this? Besides, a lioness is more valorous than the lion. The hunters are not as much afraid of the lion as the lioness. The lion may escape at the sight of a hundred hunters with their rifles aiming at him but the lioness will stand on her own ground. A mare is more patient and more mettlesome than the horse. Once an Arab wanted to sell me his horse. He had a mare also. I told him I would like to buy the mare. He would not sell her - Why? Because if I keep this horse for ten years it will grow old and there will be no increase in the family while the mare every year brings a little horse into the world."

The anti-suffragist and the celebrated actress laughed. She could not say anything. "I bow my head before you. The proofs are unanswerable" she says. The Master tells her how in America in nearly all states woman are enjoying suffrage and so far as experience teaches us the women in these states have not abused their right and privilege. The interview was full of fun and laughter and serious discussion at the same time. She [the actress] left the Master after kissing His hand and expressing her great delight and gratitude."

(A Supplement to 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Europe, 1912-1913, Adib Masumian, compiler, 2023, https://bahai-library.org/supplement_abdul-baha_europe_1912-1913, pp. 62-63)