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Therefore, surely, God is not pleased that so important an instrument as woman should suffer from want of training in order to attain the perfections desirable and necessary for her great life's work! Divine Justice demands that the rights of both sexes should be equally respected since neither is superior to the other in the eyes of Heaven. Dignity before God depends, not on sex, but on purity and luminosity of heart. Human virtues belong equally to all! 'Abdu'l-Baha: Paris Talks, p. 162 (121:1) Through the above example, I have attempted to illuminate and explain the deep motivating influence behind the surprising and unprecedented changes that have occurred in the status and rights of women over the past century. Baha'u'llah announced the principle of the equality of men and women at a time in history when it was definitely not accepted by religions or governments, and certainly not by the masses of humanity. Today, however, because the principle of the equality of men and women has gradually gone through various degrees of acceptance due to the constantly increasing influence of Baha'u'llah's spirit in the world, we see that, in many countries, this principle has reached the point of being enforced by law (121:2) One could argue, of course, that it may simply be a coincidence that Baha'u'llah taught the equality of men and women, and the world is increasingly accepting this truth; perhaps Baha'u'llah had particular foresight in this area, but that doesn't mean that it holds the significance which I purport that it does here. He may have been ahead of His time on this thinking, one might say, but there are many people who are ahead of their time on one thing or another (121:3) An interesting and weighty fact, however, when brought to light, should suffice to convince anyone that coincidence cannot account for His seeming insight, nor can He be seen as simply a reformer with some good ideas. Not just for one of His teachings, but for the body of them, this same principle is true (121:4) In 1932, the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, Shoghi Effendi, wrote:-. The humanitarian and spiritual principles enunciated decades ago in the darkest East by Baha'u'llah and moulded by Him into a coherent scheme are one after the other being taken by a world unconscious of their source as the marks of progressive civilisation. Dawn Breakers, p. xxxvi (121:5) If we had been alive during the time of Baha'u'llah, and someone had explained to us His teaching regarding the equality of men and women, most likely we could not have imagined that the world could ever accept it, and we ourselves probably would not have. Certainly no population in the world at the time had. But times change - relentlessly. And the world has, without knowing it, moved closer to Baha'u'llah's vision regarding men and women
(121:6)
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