A Baha’i Perspective: Implementing gender equality benefits all
The progress and empowerment of women and attaining their rightful and equal status, is fundamental to the future well-being of the earth and its people.
August 9th – designated as National Women’s Day – is a reminder of the important contributions women make to our communities and of the need for greater commitment to implement full gender equality.
The Bahá’í Writings state: “world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly. Until womankind reaches the same degree as man, until she enjoys the same arena of activity, extraordinary attainment for humanity will not be realized; humanity cannot wing its way to heights of real attainment”.
The progress and empowerment of women and attaining their rightful and equal status, is fundamental to the future well-being of the earth and its people. The emancipation of women is not only necessary for the future well-being of humanity; it is also a requirement of justice, and it is a prerequisite to global peace.
According to a statement of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women: “Women and men are equal, and always have been. This is a spiritual truth whose expression in the world has been suppressed throughout most of history, owing in part to imbalanced systems and structures that have long favoured men’s progress and participation over women’s,” and “until these inequalities are thoroughly uprooted from the fabric of society, humanity will remain mired in the conflict, despair, confusion, and imbalance that have come to define much of modern life”.
Women play a central role in the development of our families and our communities. Their empowerment and the attainment of their rightful and equal status with men, requires profound changes in the minds and hearts of both men and women. It begins with the understanding that gender equality is not only a desired condition for the common good, but a dimension of human reality.
Women and men complement each other in their roles and functions, in the same way that the two wings of a bird complement each other and together facilitate its flight. The complementary roles of men and women also imply that, if one is defective, the other also cannot attain to perfection. As the Bahá’í Writings state: “As long as women are prevented from attaining their highest possibilities, so long will men be unable to achieve the greatness which might be theirs”.
The principle of the equality of men and women does not imply sameness or identity of function, but it denies any implication of superiority associated with functional differences.
The Universal House of Justice, the governing council of the Bahá’í International Community states that “the equality of men and women is …a universal spiritual truth about an aspect of the nature of human beings .It is, above all, a requirement of justice. This principle is consonant with the highest rectitude of conduct, its application strengthens family life, and it is essential to the regeneration and progress of any nation, the peace of the world, and the advancement of civilization”.
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