esent they attend schools and colleges, pursue the ordinary
curriculum and day by day are becoming indispensable to men and equal to
them. This is the present condition of womankind in Persia.

Question: What relation do you sustain to the founder of your belief? Are
you his successor in the same manner as the Pope of Rome?

Answer: I am the servant of Baha'u'llah, the Founder; and in this I glory.
No honor do I consider greater than this, and it is my hope that I may be
confirmed in servitude to Baha'u'llah. This is my station.

Question: Is it not a fact that universal peace cannot be accomplished
until there is political democracy in all the countries of the world?

Answer: It is very evident that in the future there shall be no
centralization in the countries of the world, be they constitutional in
government, republican or democratic in form. The United States may be
held up as the example of future government--that is to say, each province
will be independent in itself, but there will be federal union protecting
the interests of the various independent states. It may not be a
republican or a democratic form. To cast aside centralization which
promotes despotism is the exigency of the time. This will be productive of
international peace. Another fact of equal importance in bringing about
international peace is woman's suffrage. That is to say, when perfect
equality shall be established between men and women, peace may be realized
for the simple reason that womankind in general will never favor warfare.
Women will not be willing to allow those whom they have so tenderly cared
for to go to the battlefield. When they shall have a vote, they will
oppose any cause of warfare. Another factor which will bring about
universal peace is the linking together of the Orient and the Occident.

Question: What is your belief about reincarnation?

Answer: The subject of reincarnation has two aspects. One is that which
the Hindustani people believe, and even that is subdivided into two:
reincarnation and metempsychosis. According to one belief the soul goes
and then returns in certain reincarnations; therefore, they say that a
sick person is sick because of actions in a previous incarnation and that
this is retribution. The other school of Hinduism believes that man
sometimes appears as an animal--a donkey, for instance--and that this is
retribution for past acts. I am referring to the beliefs in that country,
the beliefs of the