Baha'i Perspectives

nadim April 11th, 2010

Of Americans under the age of 30:

• 33% prefer socialism over capitalism
• 37% prefer capitalism
• 30% are undecided

These statistics, from a 2009 Rasmussen telephone survey, were cited in Michael Moore’s latest documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story“.

At a glance these figures are surprising, coming as they do from the country that has historically prided itself in being the champion of free market capitalism. They reflect just how badly the financial crises of the last 2 years has shaken young people’s confidence in the once impregnable fortresses symbolised by New York’s Wall Street and the Square Mile in London. With jobs in short supply and a startlingly high ratio of unemployed university graduates, the sense of disillusionment is palpable.  And it hasn’t just been the youth. World leaders have been forced to sit up and scrutinise elements of a system that has lead to senseless exploitation of the masses, gross disparities between the rich and poor and blatantly unjust practices by individuals and corporations alike.

Just last week, President Sarkozy of France reiterated the plea in front of students at Columbia University:

The world economic regulations cannot go on as they are. We can’t accept a capitalist system without rules any more… Lack of rules will be the death of capitalism.

“Capitalism: A Love Story” begins with a sequence of flashing images, juxtaposing elements that precipitated the fall of the Ancient Roman Empire with correlating scenes from modern-day society. This impactful intro calls to mind the words of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, who once asked rhetorically:

Are we, the privileged custodians of a priceless Faith, called upon to witness a cataclysmical change, politically as fundamental and spiritually as beneficent as that which precipitated the fall of the Roman Empire in the West?

Dr. Peter Khan, in his reflections on the 2009 Ridvan Message, examines the phrase in the message that calls on the Baha’i community to be conscious participants in “rebuilding a broken world”. Again, the metaphor of Ancient Rome is used. Civilizations don’t just come and go he reminds us — they exhibit cracks over time, often hundreds of years in the making, until eventually they crumble and collapse. Much has been written by various authors in an attempt to identify the fissures in the Roman Empire, some of which have been represented by Moore’s sequence of images…

• The disparity between rich and poor
• Too few jobs
• Games and spectacles “to keep idle citizens entertained”
• Rule by decree
• Irresponsible behaviour of public officials

Critics of Moore’s documentary-making style state that it is too black-and-white — everything is categorised as either right or wrong, focus is placed on extreme cases and subjects are often treated superficially. Some have taken issue with the subject matter directly, challenging his premise that the capitalist system is the main cause of the problems. One critic concludes with the following statement:

What he doesn’t tackle are the individual Americans who have made their own avaricious or unwise economic decisions… Perhaps what Moore should have condemned are greed and corruption. They are the human vices at the root of the issue and unfortunately, they can surface in any economic system.

Fair point. But one might then contend with this critic that, actually, many people were duped into the unwise decisions by unscrupulous bankers or mortgage lenders — that these individuals were merely naive — and the finger-pointing debate would cycle round again.

The Baha’i position accepts elements of both viewpoints. Neither should the capitalist system and the associated practices of corporations and big business be accepted as the hallmark of planetary organization — far from it — nor should the root causes of greedy and short-sighted behaviour be left unexamined. Pure capitalism, like socialism and other man-made systems preceding it, is a flawed system based on certain false assumptions about human nature and well-being (nevermind total disregard of the environment based on an antiquated assumption of inexhaustible natural resources), and is slowly unravelling before our eyes. Individuals too, while affected by the system in place, are certainly culpable for the unwise and harmful actions carried out under the pretext of personal rights and “getting ahead of the pack”.  Ultimately, the relationship between society and the individual is so intertwined and mutually affective that ignoring one at the expense of the other has to be viewed as simplistic.

With all of this as the backdrop, how are Baha’is, as re-builders of a broken world, as individuals ”anxiously concerned with the needs of the age”, going about their task? How is unity of focus and effort achieved in an environment where opinions on where to begin are so varied that one could quite easily spend a life fighting cause after endless cause… and still end up worse off? Do we tackle societal problems first and then look at individual behaviours next, or vice versa? Or do we take the visionary step of replacing the damaged shell of our present civilization with the foundations of an entirely new one?

Peter Khan neatly breaks down the immediate requirements…

How do you make a civilization?

A civilization involves a foundation of behavioral change through spiritual transformation. We can agree on that. A civilization depends upon certain moral and ethical, spiritual characteristics, but what else? What is the framework of the new civilization we are conceptualizing in this hypothetical example of given a blank sheet of paper and asked “please, set out a framework for a civilization”?

We would want to have certain things:

- We’d want an institutionalized practice of individual and community worship, for a variety of reasons

- We would want individuals comprising that civilization to engage in an exploration and application of divine teachings to daily life, so that we can build up a civilization in a reasonable and productive manner

- We would want civilized society to be imbued with a sense of altruism to the service of humanity. We don’t want selfish greedy people, but people who are altruistic, who think of the larger good.

- And essentially we would want them to transmit civilized values to the new generation of children and youth.

If you were to agree that those are the elements of the framework of a civilization then I must tell you, you have fallen into my trap, because what I have described are the elements of the core activities of the Five Year Plan. What I have referred to are things such as the devotional meetings, the institute process, study of the Ruhi Books, the focus on service to humanity, children’s classes, youth classes, the junior youth activities.

The point I make is that we are engaged, obviously in the spread of the Faith, in pursuit of the endeavors of the Five Year Plan and beyond, but far more than that we are establishing the roots of new civilization in our day-to-day activities of the present plan. This doesn’t mean that civilization will magically spring into being like the goddess Athena, rather it will come gradually, slowly, generation upon generation, decade upon decade, and century upon century, to realize its fruit in the Golden Age, but its roots are to be found in the activities of the present day at this time in history.

Tags: Baha'i core activities, capitalism, civilization, economics

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nooshin January 11th, 2010

You probably won’t be too surprised to read that only 71% of New Year’s resolutions are kept past the second week of the year, and only 46% past June.  Many people (myself included) don’t even bother to make resolutions, certain that they will be broken.  But according to a recent survey, those that actually make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t.  Perhaps the process of explicitly resolving to change something in your life, and taking concrete steps to do so, makes you more likely to succeed.

Self-awareness is crucial in deciding what needs change.  As spiritual beings, we need to constantly evaluate both our inner and outer lives, and try every day to do better than the day before.  In the Hidden Words, Bahá’u’lláh says:

O SON OF BEING! Bring thyself to account each day ere thou art summoned to a reckoning; for death, unheralded, shall come upon thee and thou shalt be called to give account for thy deeds.

I think the misconception we have is that bringing ourselves to account will necessarily be a depressing exercise, merely deepening our sense of inadequacy and feelings of guilt.  But it doesn’t have to be.  If we see our mistakes, not as failings, but as opportunites for learning and growth, self-evaluation can be empowering.  I think there is a sense of freedom from realizing that yes, I made a mistake, but I have the chance to fix it.  That every morning is a fresh start and that I am not defined by my past.

Also key is the issue of forgiveness.  Sometimes we have to forgive ourselves in order to be able to move on.  But more crucially, we have to show sincere repentance and ask forgiveness from God.  Bahá’u’lláh instructs us as follows:

..when the sinner findeth himself wholly detached and freed from all save God, he should beg forgiveness and pardon from Him. Confession of sins and transgressions before human beings is not permissible, as it hath never been nor will ever be conducive to divine forgiveness. Moreover such confession before people results in one’s humiliation and abasement, and God—exalted be His glory—wisheth not the humiliation of His servants. Verily He is the Compassionate, the Merciful. The sinner should, between himself and God, implore mercy from the Ocean of mercy, beg forgiveness from the Heaven of generosity…

But self-evaluation is not just about identifying mistakes.  We have to give ourselves credit where it’s due, and to build on our strengths.  Having a positive outlook can be so much more powerful than a negative one.  Which is why the following prayer from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is one of my favourite ones:

O God! Refresh and gladden my spirit. Purify my heart. Illumine my powers. I lay all my affairs in Thy hand. Thou art my Guide and my Refuge. I will no longer be sorrowful and grieved; I will be a happy and joyful being. O God! I will no longer be full of anxiety, nor will I let trouble harass me. I will not dwell on the unpleasant things of life.

O God! Thou art more friend to me than I am to myself. I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord.

Tags: forgiveness, new year, repentance

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nava December 2nd, 2009

I want to preface this piece with two statements. The first is that I am referring specifically to criticism among peers, friends, and loved one; not institutions (this can range from parents-children, teacher-students to courts of law, spiritual assemblies, etc.). In those specific areas, I think it is well-understood that criticism has an established place and, though the form of it should be edifying, and “constructive” rather than harsh and tyrannical, it is the role of institutions to guide and edify. My second prefatory statement comes in the way of a disclaimer: although this blog is called Bahá’í Perspectives, every piece we submit is subjective and represents the views of the author rather than any authoritative view of the Bahá’í writings. With respect to the following article, this is truer than ever. This piece represents merely my thoughts on this topic based on what I know of the Bahá’í writings and my interpretation thereof, but is not a subject I have explicitly seen dealt with anywhere in the Bahá’í teachings, so it is more like the perspective of a Bahá’í than a Bahá’í perspective.

***

About eight months ago a close friend of mine organized a small informal dinner with a married couple who are well known and highly respected. She wanted them to talk to us about marriage and share some insights with us which they have gleaned after over thirty years of a healthy marriage. In the course of the evening the husband made a statement that blew my mind and that I frequently revisit and meditate on (hence this post 8 months later). He said that when he married his wife he vowed to himself that he would never criticize her. (That’s right—never). He said something along the lines of “I married her because she’s an intelligent, mature woman. She has a relationship with Bahá’u’lláh and she’s accountable to Him [not me, he seemed to imply] for her actions. She brings herself to account each night and doesn’t need me to tell her how to improve. Even if she does something that really annoys me, I don’t tell her. She’s smart and I know she’ll figure it out.” Mind blown.

How could you be married to someone for thirty years and never criticize that person? I just could not wrap my mind around the amount of self control that would require. And is it even a good thing? The next day I had lunch with a large group of people and I brought this statement up. It led to a very heated debate about whether criticism in a marriage is a pivotal element of its functioning, and spilled over into a discussion about whether friends and family members should criticize one another.

After giving it a lot of thought, and admitting freely that I think it is very difficult to put into action, I agree with him. I think the crux of the matter is that human beings are accountable before God, not one another, for their actions. Additionally, every human being is fallible and has limited perception. Often the things I have been praised for have ended up being behaviors I should have actually curbed, and likewise, things I was criticized over ended up being behaviors that were positive. Because none of us know the context of one another’s lives—not fully—and we are not able to see all the nuances. More importantly, even if someone is wrong, why do we need to point it out? It is one thing to have an open and earnest conversation with someone and quite another to criticize each other and tell each other what to do.

The gentleman’s wife agreed with her husband’s approach and told us that in her opinion a lot of Western cultures have a strong culture of constructive criticism but most “constructive” criticism is actually quite destructive.

Another young mother was giving me advice once on how to encourage more positive behavior from some of my students and she told me to always point out the ways they have improved and outline the further progress they can make, rather than criticizing them. She said that with her own children she has seen that when she points out their “bad” behaviors, they seem to embody those traits even more, but when she speaks to them from the perspective of ‘this is where we are currently and here is where we can continue to progress’, their behavior improves.

We have to be so careful as human beings not to crush one another with the things we say, even when we think we are being helpful. Because at the end of the day, our role is to love, support and encourage one another, not modify each other’s behavior and pass judgment on one another.

… Each of us is responsible for one life only, and that is our own. Each of us is immeasurably far from being ‘perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect’ and the task of perfecting our own life and character is one that requires all our attention, our will- power and energy. If we allow our attention and energy to be taken up in efforts to keep others right and remedy their faults, we are wasting precious time. We are like ploughmen each of whom has his team to manage and his plough to direct, and in order to keep his furrow straight he must keep his eye on his goal and concentrate on his own task. If he looks to this side and that to see how Tom and Harry are getting on and to criticize their ploughing, then his own furrow will assuredly become crooked.

~ From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi

On no subject are the Bahá’í teachings more emphatic that on the necessity to abstain from fault-finding, while being ever eager to discover and root out our own faults and overcome our own failings.

~ From a letter written on behalf of The Universal House of Justice

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sam November 15th, 2009

Acceptance is the first step to overcoming a problem however simple or intricate it may be. When dealing with wounds of an emotional nature the process of healing must begin at this stage. From there the appropriate steps can be taken that will lead to sound and complete repair. However, until the person reaches that level of acceptance the wound they bear is a danger to their emotional wellbeing.

Human beings are physical as well as spiritual. Having this dual reality, it is therefore necessary to provide for the requirements of both aspects. Hence, emotional wounds must be approached with the same care and attention as physical ones would. This is something that still has to be learned as it is not widely practiced. It is a crucial step in protecting our general wellbeing. This is especially true in current society. People are constantly delivering and receiving wounds from each other with little thought of the consequences of such actions. This raises the urgency of learning how to find and administer appropriate remedies.

There is but one power which heals — that is God. The state or condition through which the healing takes place is the confidence of the heart.

(Abdu’l-Bahá in London, p. 95)

First and foremost, the individual should turn to God. Pray for healing and for aid in finding the correct treatment. It is important to note, that healing takes place through “the confidence of the heart”. The assurance a person has in the treatment being received is vital to the healing process. Such an assertion leaves it to the individual’s needs and state of mind to decide which course of action to take. This of course must be done with both prayerful reflection as well as scientific reason. One cannot just pray and hope that healing will miraculously be administered as the person sits back and waits. Steps must be taken to help the healing take place.

Take for instance, a cut hand; if you pray for the cut to be healed and do not stop its bleeding, you will not do much good; a material remedy is needed.

(Abdu’l-Bahá in London, p. 65)

The mindset of the person is then the next part that must be addressed. One must strive to adopt a learning mentality. This will allow the individual to view everything that is experienced as an opportunity to learn. With this approach, many of the superficial hurts that are received become little lessons, encouraging growth, acting as catalysts for the reassessing of attitudes towards life and hardships experienced. This outlook on life aids in coping with most tests and difficulties encountered. It keeps the spirits up and helps to avoid getting weighed down by the changes and chances of life. With this in mind though, one must also realise that the more serious the wound the more intricate the methods of healing. Occasionally, an experience leaves deep wounds that cannot be dealt with alone.

The question is then raised as to what steps must be taken to provide for a clear path of action in finding the remedy. A good first step to obtaining clarity of mind is to seek counsel with a person whose judgement is trusted. This allows for the situation to be observed by an individual who is not influenced by the pain. Often a counsellor can be visited. Due to their expertise on this subject and the level of experience that they have they can provide very productive and helpful advice that will help open clear paths for action.

Resort ye, in times of sickness, to competent physicians

(Baha’u'llah, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, p. 60)

At this point, another reflection must be taken into account to act as a safety net. When a person harms themselves, a clean environment is sought out to prevent further complications and infections. The same idea must be applied to dealing with wounds of an emotional nature. The individual must be aware of the environment and healing administered, ensuring that it will prevent them from having future complications. This requires sound judgement and reasoning with regards to whom they approach and how they weigh the advice given. To produce this “healthy environment” within our mental psyches it is important to go to a pure Source. This Source provides a standard to work by. This standard will provide a sound framework to start the recuperation as well as a safe basis to weigh against the remedied being suggested by those individuals sought out.

…if thou wishest to know the true remedy which will heal man from all sickness and will give him the health of the divine kingdom, know that it is the precepts and teachings of God. Focus thine attention upon them.

(Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 151)

We must learn to take great care in dealing with emotional wounds. As the damage is not physically visible, acceptance of it is vital in the process of coping with the impact. The next step is then finding clear paths of healing as well as providing a hygienic environment to minimize further damage. As these steps are taken, constant reliance on God and a learning mindset must be held fast to. This pure and open mindset allows for us to receive healing as well as the guidance required to discover the remedies needed for a sound recovery.

Man is under all conditions immersed in a sea of God’s blessings. Therefore, be thou not hopeless under any circumstances, but rather be firm in thy hope.

(Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 204)

Tags: healing, tests

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nadim November 9th, 2009

A few days ago my new German flatmate walked into the room with a perturbed look on his face. A Masters student in Finance, he moved to London six weeks ago excited about the prospect of spending a year studying at a top university and experiencing life in one of the world’s great capitals. Yet matters were weighing heavily on him – and all he wanted to do at this juncture was pack up and return home once the year was over.

He confessed waking up that morning in a contemplative mood, filled with profound thoughts about meaning and purpose – rather uncharacteristic of him, he added. But these thoughts were not entirely random either. For one, he had observed his classmates devoting every waking hour to their studies, in an almost mechanistic way, without pausing to ask themselves why they were doing it. Was the lure of the job that might follow really worth all the fuss?

Life in London wasn’t as enriching as he had imagined either. Sure, it is pacey, hip and multicultural, but like most newcomers to the city – and even some who have been here for years – he had fallen prey to the paradox of big city life. That acute awareness of being surrounded by masses of people from all walks of life, yet at the same time feeling isolated and alone.

On this latter theme, we tossed some thoughts around for a while. What was it about life in the urban sprawl, or the structure of the education system, or the norms of acceptable dialogue and interaction that give rise to feeling like you may as well be the only living organism on this planet? Surely there are elements of the human condition that are being overlooked here, but what could they be? As I suggested that they might be related to conditions that uplift the human spirit, a palpable expression of acknowledgement appeared on his face, at which point the conversation somehow drifted to other themes.

Yet in my mind, the words “systematic” and “exclude” rang loud and clear, as I recalled the passage from Century of Light that seemed to encapsulate the moment :

…the pressure of a dogmatic materialism, claiming to be the voice of “science”, that seeks systematically to exclude from intellectual life all impulses arising from the spiritual level of human consciousness.

Applying this statement to most tertiary education systems, it is quite an indictment. And another passage from the Prosperity of Humankind (part of a larger critique on contemporary development theory, and well worth reading in its entirety):

For the vast majority of the world’s population, the idea that human nature has a spiritual dimension — indeed that its fundamental identity is spiritual — is a truth requiring no demonstration. It is a perception of reality that can be discovered in the earliest records of civilization and that has been cultivated for several millennia by every one of the great religious traditions of humanity’s past. Its enduring achievements in law, the fine arts, and the civilizing of human intercourse are what give substance and meaning to history. In one form or another its promptings are a daily influence in the lives of most people on earth and… the longings it awakens are both inextinguishable and incalculably potent.

These two passages, referring to the potent longings of the human spirit, help to explain why strictly rational approaches to development would alone fail to yield the inner satisfaction sought by every soul. We might imagine, for example, that putting people of different cultures within close vicinity of one another (the so-called “melting pot”) will magically lead to people holding hands and singing together.

Unfortunately, it’s not so straightforward. This year, the Scottish Interfaith Council produced a document entitled Values in Harmony, containing representations from 10 major Religion and Belief communities, including the Baha’i Faith. In it, one finds this striking quote from Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks:

Multiculturalism has run its course, and has not led to integration but segregation. It has allowed groups to live separately with no incentive to integrate…Culture is fragmenting into non-communicating systems of belief in which civil discourse ends and reasoned argument becomes impossible.

While multiculturalism has helped to weaken age-old prejudices and contributed to a greater sense that we are a single human race, I can also see where Rabbi Sacks is coming from. How will the motivation arise to genuinely reach out and integrate with other cultures, if not driven by an inner belief system that encourages it? And how nice would it be if more welcoming neighbourhood communities started to spring up across our cities as a result?

As I come full circle to my flatmate’s sentiments on that day, I am left with two conclusions:

• That at some point, every individual will experience those inner promptings that lead to the question “why?” and we can scarcely predict when that point will be.
• That to be an effective antidote to alienation in the big city, multiculturalism has to be infused with a big dose of spirit…

Tags: culture, loneliness, spirituality

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leila September 23rd, 2009

Wakili McNeill from Malcolm X Drummers and Dancers group at the 31st Adams Morgan Day Festival. (Photo Credit: Barbara Krawcowicz)

Maybe it was the graying of the skies, summer impatient to morph into fall.  A lively street festival, Adams Morgan Day, had descended upon my neighborhood on a sunny Sunday in early September– the air thick with smoke from grills sizzling with Jamaican jerk chicken, throbbing with the sound of drums from a Ghanaian dance troupe, as thick crowds of young and old and black and brown and white weaved through stalls selling scarves and jewels, and where local artists displayed their work.  The last day of summer hadn’t yet arrived, but the next morning, shuffling past sleepy cafes on the two-mile trek to work, it wasn’t raining but somehow the air felt damp, and clouds quilted the sky, making all gray and quiet.

My neighborhood is colorful and diverse in every sense, an eyeful and a story on every corner of every block.  But the part of town in which I work lacks some soul, a claustrophobic cacophony of steel and glass.  Men in black suits and ties lunch over terms like How Do We Get Our Work Onto the Agenda, and women practical heels punch at a Blackberry in right hand, cigarette in left.  Exit the polite double doors of any given office building, and one is welcomed by blaring of taxis honking, the whooshing of FedEx trucks and words, words, words about work in a language that I used to try to understand, but now seems so foreign.  There is a certain worldly power associated with this part of town– the World Bank, the IMF, the White House, the many lobbying firms and think-tanks that crowd the few blocks of downtown Washington, D.C.  And yet, I see so many blank stares, pinched faces, stressed countenances.  And many times I’ve thought: So many of them don’t seem happy.

***

I’m on a housing hunt these days.  I was barely a week back home from a trip when my roommate informed me that she was moving to a different part of town, giving me thirty days to scramble to find a place to live.  So my evenings have been packed with open houses, putting on a smile and nodding through chore expectations, and the obligatory small talk that characterizes the interview process.  And while I’d throw myself, exhausted, onto the couch in my half-empty apartment at night, I reflected on what I’d seen in the city.  The hunt took me to all corners, and while the rent was the same, the neighborhoods varied.  Rowhouses on quaint, tree-lined streets in quiet neighborhoods morphed into what some called the “rough” part of town, a fact which I conveniently hid from my parents.  My heart raced a little faster as I raced through these streets, and I wondered why the city was so fragmented.

One such neighborhood where my housing hunt has taken is the one in which I teach a children’s class.  On Saturday afternoons, with my co-teachers, we wave to neighbors as we collect the children, some of whom last week were dragging themselves to class.  I stopped by on a Wednesday evening, after looking at several homes in the children’s neighborhood.  And while I was already late for a class, I couldn’t help but linger on their street, where some of my students were teasing each other on front stoops, and scampering about the playground.  I was greeted with hugs and squeezes and laughter, as the obligatory drunken loiterers lounging in the playground muttered incoherently.  It isn’t an easy neighborhood, one where the children see and experience things that I hadn’t at their age.  And sometimes I see the struggles of immigrant families, of double-unbelonging, of making ends meet, and of the materialism so prevalent in American society pressing its finger upon their new lives in this country.  But despite the rough edges that characterize the neighborhood, I left that evening, prying the children’s arms from my waist and blowing kisses as I said goodbye, with a joy surging in my heart that I hadn’t felt for weeks.

***

And all of this — the stress of moving, the juxtaposition of materially poor and rich, and moving seamlessly between worlds seemingly apart– has made me think about happiness, a topic that has been covered in this space before.  As I mulled over this topic, I remembered a quotation by ‘Abdu’l-Baha that I’d read in The Secret of Divine Civilization:

…human happiness consists only in drawing closer to the Threshold of Almighty God, and in securing the peace and well-being of every individual member, high and low alike, of the human race; and the supreme agencies for accomplishing these two objectives are the excellent qualities with which humanity has been endowed.

(‘Abdu’l-Baha, Secret of Divine Civilization, page 60)

***

To be continued in Part II.

Tags: childhood, happiness

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nooshin September 12th, 2009

Equality.  I never thought it a hard concept to grasp: we are all equal in the sight of God, regardless of nationality, socio-economic status, race or gender. After all, I was raised on:

O Children of Men! Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other….

Bahá’u’lláh, The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, Arabic no. 68

And among the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is the equality of women and men. The world of humanity has two wings—one is women and the other men. Not until both wings are equally developed can the bird fly. Should one wing remain weak, flight is impossible. Not until the world of women becomes equal to the world of men in the acquisition of virtues and perfections, can success and prosperity be attained as they ought to be.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, sec. 227

I get lulled into thinking that most people think the same way, and that our systems and governments are, by-in-large, all working under the same premise. Last week I read something that reminded me that, actually, vast numbers of women are still living greatly unequal lives.  I  was reading a paper entitled “Gender vulnerabilities, shocks and social protection responses“, (produced by the Overseas Development Institute), which outlines the various impacts the recent financial and food price crises have had on women.  It was sobering reading:

• It is women who bear the brunt of the food price crisis, not only because they are primarly responsible for the management of food in the household but also because they are often the ones who buffer the impact of the crisis at the household level through decreased consumption.
• Women often become ’shock absorbers of household food security’, reducting their own consumption to allow more food for other household members.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the agricultural sector makes up more than 60% of all female employment.  But, women in Africa only own 1% of the land and also face biases against access to training, inputs, capital, credit and transportation.
• Rising food prices can hold important implications for the distribution of care responsiblities and time poverty.  Women’s time burdens are put under more pressure as the need for cheaper food may entail travelling further… on top of such chores such as the collection of water and firewood.  Increased demands on women’s time and energy could hold negative impacts for children’s health and schooling.  A reduction in childcare may translate into greater malnutrion and poor health affecting children’s life-long capacity, ability to learn and chances of climbing out of poverty.
• Where women have limited decision-making and bargaining power within the household over income, this often results in less expenditure on health, nutruion and education, and poorer outcomes for family members, including children.
• Women’s education and nutritional knowledge and status within the household contribute more than 50% to the reduction of child malnutrition.

It was the last two points that stood out the most for me, because the Baha’i Writings place such great emphasis on the education of women:

Furthermore, the education of woman is more necessary and important than that of man, for woman is the trainer of the child from its infancy. If she be defective and imperfect herself, the child will necessarily be deficient; therefore, imperfection of woman implies a condition of imperfection in all mankind, for it is the mother who rears, nurtures and guides the growth of the child.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, A Compilation on Women, page17

The education of women has far reaching consequences, beyond that of the strength and well-being of the family unit. For only once humanity recognizes the necessity of ensuring the equality of men and women will we be able to attain world peace:

The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the sexes, is one of the most important, though less acknowledged prerequisites of peace. … Only as women are welcomed into full partnership in all fields of human endeavour will the moral and psychological climate be created in which international peace can emerge.

The Universal House of Justice, The Pomise of World Peace

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