o which Baha'u'llah attaches great
importance is that women should be regarded as the equals of men and
should enjoy equal rights and privileges, equal education and equal
opportunities.

The great means on which He relies for bringing about the emancipation of
women is universal education. Girls are to receive as good an education as
boys. In fact, the education of girls is even more important than that of
boys, for in time these girls will become mothers, and, as mothers, they
will be the first teachers of the next generation. Children are like green
and tender branches; if the early training is right they grow straight,
and if it is wrong they grow crooked; and to the end of their lives they
are affected by the training of their earliest years. How important, then,
that girls should be well and wisely educated!

During His Western tours, 'Abdu'l-Baha had frequent occasion to explain
the Baha'i teachings on this subject. At a meeting of the Women's Freedom
League in London in January 1913, He said:--

Humanity is like a bird with its two wings--the one is male, the
other female. Unless both wings are strong and impelled by some
common force, the bird cannot fly heavenwards. According to the
spirit of this age, women must advance and fulfill their mission
in all departments of life, becoming equal to men. They must be on
the same level as men and enjoy equal rights. This is my earnest
prayer and it is one of the fundamental principles of Baha'u'llah.

Some scientists have declared that the brains of men weigh more
than those of women, and claim this as a proof of man's
superiority. Yet when we look around us we see people with small
heads, whose brains much weigh little, who show the greatest
intelligence and great powers of understanding; and others with
big heads, whose brains must be heavy, and yet they are witless.
Therefore the avoirdupois of the brain is no true measure of
intelligence or superiority.

When men bring forward as a second proof of their superiority the
assertion that women have not achieved as much as men, they use
poor arguments which leave history out of consideration. If they
kept themselves more fully informed historically, they would know
that great women have lived and achieved great things in the past,
and that there are many living and achieving great things today.

Here 'Abdu'l-Baha described