Issues of Society

Two Columns of Society

Source: Diary of Mirza Ahmad Sohrab.

INTERVIEW BETWEEN ABDU’L-BAHA AND A SAN FRANCISCO NEWSPAPER REPORTER.
To a correspondent of The Examiner, October 3, 1912. 

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Correspondent: I have heard that you advocate the complete equality of men and women. This radical teaching coming from an Oriental thinker is of great interest and supreme significance. Just at this juncture the California women are clamoring for the right to vote for all the national and state officials, and your opinion on this important question will be greatly appreciated by the people.

ABDU’L-BAHA: The question of equality between men and women has made greater advancement in America than elsewhere, and day by day it is assuming greater importance and becoming nearer to realization. However, as long as complete equality does not exist between male and female, the world of humanity will not make extraordinary progress. 

The woman is an important column, and there is another equally important. If we aim to have a durable building, the foundations of both columns must be laid very deep. 

The women are the first teachers and instructors of the small children. They teach them and inculcate morality in their minds and hearts. Later they go to universities for higher education and specialization. Now if the teacher or instructor is deficient, how can the scholar be properly trained? Therefore, it is proven that the culture and refinement of the men are intensified and will bloom and attain to perfect fruition when the women are equally educated and given the same educational facilities. Consequently the women must enjoy all the learning they are able to assimilate, in order that they may reach to the same level as men. 

The same privileges and opportunities must be conferred upon women;—so that just as they share together life and its responsibilities, they may also share with him the same virtues of the world of humanity. Undoubtedly partnership in education and culture presupposes equality in rights. The world of humanity has two wings, one wing male, the other wing female. Both wings must become strong, so that mankind may soar to the empyrean realms of its destined perfection. But if one wing is left weak and the other strong, its upward flight will be slow. 

God hath created both human. They share together and in common all the faculties. No one is endowed with special privileges. How can we make a distinction which is unknown in the sight of God? We must follow the policy of God.