March is Women's History Month

One of the central tenets of the Bahá’í Faith is the equality of women and men.  In honor of Women's History Month, we offer this quote:

""The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the sexes, is one of the most important, though less acknowledged prerequisites of peace. The denial of such equality perpetrates an injustice against one half of the world's population and promotes in men harmful attitudes and habits that are carried from the family to the workplace, to political life, and ultimately to international relations.

There are no grounds, moral, practical, or biological, upon which such denial can be justified. Only as women are welcomed into full partnership in all fields of human endeavor will the moral and psychological climate be created in which international peace can emerge."

The quote, taken from a statement on peace written by the Universal House of Justice in 1985, reiterates the teaching of Bahá'u'lláh that society must reorganize its life to give practical expression to the principle of equality between women and men.

An early heroine of the Bahá’í Faith was a woman named Tahirih (pronounced ta-her-ray). She was one of the first 18 souls to recognize that a new Religious Dispensation had begun. She was martyred in in August of 1852 for her beliefs. Her last words before being put to death were: “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.”

A short story about her heroic life can be found here.