Flora Teckie
As we continue celebrating National Women’s Month, it is timely to reflect on the importance of the education and empowerment of women, and their contribution to the advancement of our nations and to that of humanity.
The advancement of civilisation requires the full participation of everyone, including women. For this to happen girls and boys must be valued by their families and by society and given equal opportunities in all fields of human endeavour.
The Bahá’í Writings state that education must be provided for all. According to the Universal House of Justice, the governing council of the Bahá’í international community, “the cause of universal education … deserves the utmost support that the governments of the world can lend it. For ignorance is indisputably the principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples and the perpetuation of prejudice. No nation can achieve success unless education is accorded all its citizens.”
The Universal House of Justice further states: “The decision-making agencies involved would do well to consider giving first priority to the education of women and girls, since it is through educated mothers that the benefits of knowledge can be most effectively and rapidly diffused throughout society.”
Despite the positive efforts in the past few decades to ensure equal education and other rights and opportunities for women, various forms of discrimination against them persist. In many cultures, women have a lower status and enjoy fewer rights and opportunities than men – in their families and communities.
According to the Bahá’í Writings, “men and women are equal in the sight of God … there is no distinction to be made between them. The only difference between them now is due to lack of education and training. If woman is given equal opportunity of education, distinction and estimate of inferiority will disappear”.
The shift in values and attitudes required for giving equal rights and opportunities to women requires profound changes in the minds and hearts of people and in the structures of society. It begins with the understanding that the equality of women and men is not only a desired condition for the common good: it is a dimension of human reality.
The governing council of the Bahá’í International Community states:“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 civilisation”.
Education of women is not only a human right. It is also in the best interests of our communities. “The 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 realised; humanity cannot wing its way to heights of real attainment,” state the Bahá’í Writings.
Education and empowerment of women and their equality with men will bring about a more balanced and peaceful world, a world in which the more masculine qualities of strength and courage will be balanced by intuition, love and service; qualities in which women are strong.
Teckie is a professional architect, a Bahá’í Faith follower, and spiritual columnist