The woman of the East has progressed. Formerly in India,
Persia and throughout the Orient, she was not considered a human being. Certain
Arab tribes counted their women in with the live stock. In their language the
noun for woman also meant donkey; that is, the same name applied to both and a
man's wealth was accounted by the number of these beasts of burden he
possessed. The worst insult one could hurl at a man was to cry out, "Thou
woman!"
From the moment Bahá'u'lláh appeared, this changed. He did
away with the idea of distinction between the sexes, proclaiming them equal in
every capacity. In former times it was considered wiser that woman should not
know how to read or write; she should occupy herself only with drudgery. She
was very ignorant. Bahá'u'lláh declares the education of woman to be of more
importance than that of man. If the mother be ignorant, even if the father have
great knowledge, the child's education will be at fault, for education begins
with the milk. A child at the breast is like a tender branch that the gardener
can train as he wills. The East has begun to educate its women. Some there are
in Persia who have become liberated through this cause, whose cleverness and
eloquence the 'ulama cannot refute. Many of them are poets. They are absolutely
fearless. I hope for a like degree of progress among the women of Europe --
that each may shine like unto a lamp; that they may cry out the proclamation of
the kingdom; that they may truly assist the men; nay, that they may be even
superior to the men, versed in sciences and yet detached, so that the whole
world may bear witness to the fact that men and women have absolutely the same
rights. It would be a cause of great joy for me to see such women. This is
useful work; by it woman will enter into the kingdom. Otherwise, there will be
no results. (‘Abdu'l-Bahá, ‘Divine Philosophy’; The Compilation of Compilations,
vol. II, Women)
