East has progressed. Formerly in India, Persia and...

The woman of the East has progressed. Formerly in India, Persia and
throughout the Orient, she was not considered a human being. Certain Arab
tribes counted their women in with the live stock. In their language the
noun for woman also meant donkey; that is, the same name applied to both
and a man's wealth was accounted by the number of these beasts of burden
he possessed. The worst insult one could hurl at a man was to cry out,
"Thou woman!"

From the moment Baha'u'llah appeared, this changed. He did away with the
idea of distinction between the sexes, proclaiming them equal in every
capacity.

In former times it was considered wiser that woman should not know how to
read or write; she should occupy herself only with drudgery. She was very
ignorant. Baha'u'llah declares the education of woman to be of more
importance than that of man. If the mother be ignorant, even if the father
have great knowledge, the child's education will be at fault, for
education begins with the milk. A child at the breast is like a tender
branch that the gardener can train as he wills.

The East has begun to educate its women. Some there are in Persia who have
become liberated through this cause, whose cleverness and eloquence the
'ulama cannot refute. Many of them are poets. They are absolutely
fearless.

...

I hope for a like degree of progress among the women of Europe--that each
may shine like unto a lamp; that they may cry out the proclamation of the
kingdom; that they may truly assist the men; nay, that they may be even
superior to the men, versed in sciences and yet detached, so that the
whole world may bear witness to the fact that men and women have
absolutely the same rights. It would be a cause of great joy for me to see
such women. This is useful work; by it woman will enter into the kingdom.
Otherwise, there will be no results.

("'Abdu'l-Baha on Divine Philosophy" (Boston: Tudor Press, 1918), pp.
81-83) [24]

25: The world in the past has been ruled by force, and man has dominated
over...

The world in the past has been ruled by force, and man has dominated over
woman by reason of his more forceful and aggressive qualities both of body
and mind. But the balance is already shifting; force is losing its
dominance, and mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual qualities of
love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining ascendancy. Hence
the new