REVIEW

Advancement of Women: A Bahá'í Perspective

Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette 1998

Though the layout and style of the text is slightly challenging, reminiscent of a government circular, this book is well-worth reading. The reader needs a good head of steam to penetrate a serious, densely-packed and meticulously charted account of the authors' understanding of the contribution of the Bahá'í Faith to the advancement of women.

It is not easy going on the eye or the mind, for it has gravity, but it grows on you. It is worth persevering with, if only to admire the care and thoroughness of the authors. In seven chapters and 300 odd pages of text we are shown the principle of equality of women with men in a way that few others have been brave enough or centred enough to attempt. It took insight to choose this course. This is equality come of age.

Certain features help this work to stand out from the usual fare in the realm of "women and equality" studies within the Bahá'í community. The book is excellent in contextualising the principle of equality within the setting of the principles and practices of the Bahá'í Faith as a whole. The logic and imperative of equality is thus profoundly and widely rooted in spiritual, moral and social foundations, rather than bandwagoned on flimsy politicking.

Chapter one includes a discussion of the principle of equality in the context of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings as an agent of human transformation. The second chapter explains the role of the Covenant in safeguarding, among other things, the equal status of women with men. It also includes an interesting and useful account of how prejudice against women arose, grew and was institutionalised in the beliefs and practices of Christianity and Islam. This chapter, in addition, examines the implications of the equality principle in all Bahá'í conduct and social action, including the role of education and the notion of complementarity or roles.

The third chapter explores the connection between the model of Bahá'í family life and world peace. Chapter four deals with the exercise of Bahá'í Law as a spiritual and evolving process which implements divine prescriptions in stages appropriate to human development. A number of key subjects are dealt with here, including exemptions from prayers and pilgrimage, the nature of secuality, genital mutilation, rape, marriage and divorce, dowry and financial rights, and service on the Institutions of the Faith. The issue of women not serving on the Universal House of Justice is handled openly and honestly and in a low-key manner. Given the serious nature and widespread practice of female genital mutilation, and given that the House of Justice have pronounced upon the need for its eradication (11th January 1994), it was, perhaps, surprising that it only got five and a half lines in the text.

Chapters five and six explain, sometimes in fascinating detail, the way that Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice have implemented equality of women with men in their missions. A particularly telling passage describes, for example, how 'Abdu'l-Bahá arranged for the first female gynaecologist, Dr Susan Moody, to go to Iran to see to the needs of Bahá'í and other women in 1909. This section of the book is a goldmine.

The first chapter explores various aspects of practising equality at individual, family and societal levels. On p285 is quoted 'Abdu'l-Bahá's prediction that when men own the equality of women there will be no need for them to struggle for their rights! But the book misses an opportunity here to explore, in more detail, the practicalities of how men may assist, or be assisted to assist, in the advancement of women, and therefore of themselves. Perhaps that is another book ...

The "Advancement of Women: A Bahá'í Perspective" has a very broad sweep, from past, through present, into future, and only occasionally deals with specifics. It is patient and thorough in its explanations and, while it may have opened itself to the charge of repetitiveness, its chapters can consequently be taken as stand-alones for the reader who wants to use it as a reference work. No Bahá'í seriously interested in the issue of women's equality can afford to be without it. Its insights are wholly derived from the Bahá'í Writings and the example of the lives of the central figures of the Faith. The engine that drives this work comes entirely from within the Faith, whereas, with much else that is written by Bahá'ís on the subject, one has the feeling that it is driven by secular feminisms of various forms though glossed by Bahá'í coachwork.

One is left with the feeling that this will become a classic of its kind. It is possible to see this book as a model, in some respects, for approaching other Bahá'í principles in a comprehensive and fully contextualised way. It avoids the common pitfalls of being strident and controversial, yet manages to seethe queitly with world-shaking implications. It is not a barn-burner or jack-in-the-box, but a Tardis whose contents will take a number of years to unpack and digest.

Trevor R J Finch