Baha'i Perspectives

iman December 15th, 2008

A man walking down the street with, presumably, his partner, hitting her across the back of the head every 10 metres or so. Again and again and again… something I just wasn’t expecting to see whilst walking to work recently. Upsetting, surreal, unjust. Around this same time, on November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women was observed.

Abuse commonly stems from, amongst other things, cultural standards, prior abuse of the now-abuser, insufficient parenting, broken homes or genuine illness. Barring the latter, all indicate just how pivotal education is:

The basis for such [moral] curricula is the belief that every person is a spiritual being with limitless potential for noble action but that potential, in order to manifest, must be consciously cultivated through a curriculum attuned to this fundamental human dimension.

Among the moral capabilities identified by Bahá’í­ educational institutions include the ability to:

• participate effectively in non-adversarial collective decision-making

• act with rectitude of conduct based on ethical and moral principles

• cultivate one’s sense of dignity and self-worth

• create a vision of a desired future based on shared values and principles, and to inspire others to work for its fulfillment

• understand relationships based on dominance and to contribute towards their transformation into relationships based on reciprocity and service.

In this way, the curriculum seeks to develop the individual as a whole integrating the spiritual and the material, the theoretical and the practical and the sense of individual progress with service to the community.

Such capabilities can be taught in schools but will not be effective unless they take root in family and community:

…it is the family environment in which children grow and form views about themselves, the world and the purpose of life. To the degree that a family fails to meet the fundamental needs of the children, to that same degree will society be burdened with the consequences of neglect and abuse and will suffer greatly from the resulting conditions of apathy and violence.

In the family, the child learns about the nature of power and its expression in interpersonal relationships; it is here that she first learns to accept or reject authoritarian rule and violence as a means of expression and conflict resolution. In this environment, the widespread violence committed by men against women and girls constitutes an assault on the foundational unit of the community and the nation.

Religion has historically been the primary contributor of the values espoused in most of the world, yet, today, it is voices arising in the name of religion that are obstacles to the eradication of abuse and violent behaviour:

Using religious appeals as a vehicle for their own power, proponents of extremist religious interpretations have sought to tame’ women and girls by limiting their mobility outside of the home, limiting their access to education, subjecting their bodies to harmful traditional practices, controlling attire and even killing to punish acts which were claimed to abase the family honor. It is religion itself that stands in desperate need of renewal.

A core element of such renewal is the need for religious leaders to state unequivocally and become the standard bearers of the principle of equality of men and women, a moral and practical principle urgently needed to realize progress in the social, political and economic spheres of society. Today, religious practices and doctrines in flagrant violation of international human rights standards must be subject to deeper examination and scrutiny, bearing in mind that all religions contain the voices of women, which have often been absent from the evolving definition of what religion is and what it requires.

Who is responsible for the protection of women? The highest, most influential (in terms of enforcement) body of power available to us is the State:

…the State has the duty and responsibility to protect the individual. It is at this level that enlightened leadership is desperately required. Many governments continue to hide behind cultural and religious reservations to international treaties, perpetuating a climate of legal and moral impunity and rendering this kind of violence and its victims invisible.

Ultimately, however, how can a self-sustaining solution to common plagues such as abuse be found? Progress is iterative. As each generation embraces, more and more, the idea that education is the sturdy foundation that can stabilize society’s shaky core, the closer will be the goal of eradicating societal ills.

Quotations extracted from separate statements located here and here at www.bic.org

Tags: abuse, education, women

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