The sexual gaps between men and women is a problem originated from long time ago. Nearly since the period of forming agriculture life and onset of a succession of consistent communities, most people advantage man over others.
The sensitivity of this issue and its influence on various aspects like family and society create opportunities for all kinds of misusing from hiring and exploiting women by newly industrialized companies to cultural harms continued to the present time.
Meantime, cults have focused on recruiting women to attract and increase their force. Bahaism is one of these cults which has claimed for Bahaism view towards women in an exaggerated manner.
Abbas Effendi (Abdul Baha), the Baha’is forged prophet’s son created principles and instructions to attract the supports by the western countries and to attract organizational forces. The most part of new intellectual principles of Bahaism is originated from his trips to Europe and America.
Travelling to Europe and America, Abbas Effendi became familiar with the western rituals and culture and set principles and teachings known as “the Baha’i twelve principles”. The issues which weren’t new, but they were used for proselytizing. Because most of Bahaism instructions are contradictory with the real world. Anyway, using these mentioned principles, the Baha’is have proselytized extensively to update their beliefs.
One of the principles is the equality between men and women. An issue with deceptive appearance using by Baha’i proselytizers to recruit, but it is contradictory with the text of teachings of this cult and it is a null slogan.
The first head of Bahaism, Hussein Ali Nouri says: O’ bondswomen, arise for the right matter in a male manner. Most women are today considered as men and vice versa.”[۱] The look dominating on such literature shows that in speaker’s thoughts being a woman is humiliating and is considered as a default and it must be masculine if it wants to be improved.
His son, the head of the cult says violating the claiming for equality: “Although men and women share with talent and forces, but are undoubtedly men are stronger and superior even in animals like pigeons, sparrows, peafowls and the like.[2]
Unfortunately, in instructions offered about various issues like heritage, dowry, Hajj, membership in the most important sector of cult management, the conditions are worse.
For example, concerning the issue of heritage, there are many discriminations for men and women which are as follows:
“And we put the dead person’s house and cloths for the male offspring and not for the female ones and other survivor members.”
The next case is dowry in Bahaism which is quite contradictory with the human greatness. Not only this issue is not in conformity with the equality of rights claimed by Bahaism, but also it is a discrimination against women: “The dowry of an urban woman is gold, but the rural one’s is silver.”[3]
Another issue is that women are not allowed to be the member the universal house of justice. Even the Baha’i heads haven’t been able to justify the sanction of women’s membership in this center and the contradiction of this issue with the principle of the equality between men and women’s rights.
[۱] Ishraq Khawari, Abdul Hamid, the heavenly message, p. 232.
[۲] Riadh Golzar, the muck of Baha’i teachings, p. 288.
[۳] Ishraq Khawari, Abdul Hamid, ibid, p. 169.
