Exerpts from "The Equality of Women and Men"

A Statement by the National Spiritual Assembly

"Inequality retards not only the advancement of women but the progress of civilization itself."

"Despite the advancement of political and civil rights for women in America and the widespread acceptance of equality in principle, full equality has not been achieved."

"The gains for women rest uneasily on unchanged, often unexamined, inherited assumptions."

"The elements necessary to unify peoples and nations are precisely those needed to bring about equality of the sexes."

"Women and men have been and will always be equal in the sight of God."

"The principle of oneness requires that we regard humanity as a single individual, and one's own self as a member of that corporeal form..."

"since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul..."

"The world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female."

"The education of girls is particularly important...it is through educated mothers that the benefits of knowledge can be most effectively diffused throughout society."

"Great honor and nobility are rightly conferred on the station of motherhood and the importance of training children."

"Only when women become full participants in all domailns of life...will humanity be prepared to embark on the next stage of its collective development."

"When women participate fully and equally in the affaits of the world,...war will cease."

"Without fundamental changes in the attitudes and values of individuals...full equality between women and men cannot be achieved."

"force is losing its dominance, and mental alertness, intuituin, and the spiritual qualities of love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining ascendancy."

"As long as women are prevented from attaining their highest possibilities, so long will men be unable to achieve the greatness which might be theirs."

All exerpts come from Two Wings of a Bird: The Equality of Women and Men A Statement by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States.

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