Bahá’u’lláh gives no right of appeal to the law that both
parents must give permission to the marriage, if they are living. Bahá’í
marriages should be referred to Assemblies to officiate; where there is no
Assembly to officiate your body is free to decide what procedure should be
followed. Whether it is the chairman or secretary or some other person who
actually conducts the marriage is, likewise, a matter for your body to decide.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter 23 June 1950, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Canada, ‘Messages to Canada’)
