The Baha'i Studies Listserv The foucs on gender is what's sexist, both traditional and oppositional. Feminists would rather have us see individuals who are male and individuals who are female rather than men and women. Each individual in the world is equal. They are the same in potentials and free will, but the use of their free will they can turn the into individualities who are unique and therefore different. Categories like male, female, or any other categories only exist in so far as their are male, female, etc. individuals that keep those categories in existence. Groups, clubs, societies, alliances, associations, leagues, families, state, countries, unions, companies, corporations, etc. only exists via the existence of their constituent individual members. If you split any mumber of people into several abritrary group via coin tosses or other random stats, you would wind up with each individual being the same in that they are all individuals, yet different via the free will to be unique. Males and females are no different from other categories.
________________________________ From: Sen & Sonja <[email protected]> To: Baha'i Studies <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, November 4, 2010 4:31:10 AM Subject: Re: Religion and Women The Baha'i Studies Listserv On 4 Nov 2010 at 8:57, Naison Jones wrote: > since perfection in two unequal parts comes through relative strengths > in their most suitable roles then true equality comes through apparent > inequality or distribution of roles. When you say such things, it appears to readers that you are just not willing to accept that the two parts of humanity (men and women) are equal. However from your later posts, ("For pure equality you need the man and woman doing the same thing. ") it seems that you use the word "equal" and "unequal" to refer to two people doing the same things, rather than being of equal capacity and value. You can use words any way you like, but this way causes confusion in a Bahai context, because the equality of men and women is part of the core teachings of the Bahai Faith, emphasised particularly in Abdu'l- Baha's tablets and talks. In one authenticated talk he says, "Tenth, the education and training of women, their progress, and consideration and respect for them, since they are partners and co- equals of men in life and, with respect to their humanity, are on an equal footing." http://wp.me/pcgF5-1wd In the tablet to the Hague he writes, "..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." http://bahai-library.com/provisionals/lawh.hague.html There's nothing about any inherent inequality between men and women here, or anywhere else in the Bahai writings that I know of. Sen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Sen McGlinn http://senmcglinn.wordpress.com *** In reality, the radiant, pure hearts are the Mashrak-el-Azcar and from them the voice of supplication and invocation continually reacheth the Supreme Concourse. Tablets of `Abdu'l-Baha Abbas, p. 678 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-537429-1719008.2a3842ae5b2f7d34dd5fdfc724616...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-537531-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
