“The world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly”
(‘Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace).
Woman’s emancipation and the total equality between genders, is essential for humans progress and the transformation of society.
Inequality slows not only the advancement of woman, but the whole progress of all human species. And, worse, our insistence in amputate the rights of more than a half of the world’s population is not only an insulte to the dignity of our species but a cancer that destroys us from inside, leaving unbearable sequels in our familiar, social and universal tissue.
And, even worse, still today, in some parts of the world, women are seen as fragile and, therefore, inferiors. Diverse cultures from yesterday and today have an approach on this issue and we, human, haven’t still understood that they all say the same!
Notice that according to Hinduism (religion with manifold millennia of existence!), human population depends of the chastity and fidelity of women and, just like children they could “be unleaded, women have similarly the propensity to degradation. This is why women, just like children, need constant protection of the family” (A. C. Prabhupáda). Krishna Himself speaks of men saying they could occupy themselves with “prejudicial and horrible works destined to destroy the world” (Bhagavat-Gita), but He doesn’t say that of women …
At the Jewish-Christian Theology, woman is that one who has conceded “the right of redemption by the glorification of Mary’s virginity” (Carr, A., 1997), having her origin at the “the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man” (Génesis, II:22).
And, of course, we could not approach this subject without talking about the Islamic World. In Iran, for instance, a country that, unfortunately as so many others, women lack basic and simple human rights (even though we can feel some progresses), it aroused a young poet, Táhirih, that “marked [her] century (…) with heroic transcendence” Conjugated beauty, wisdom and eloquence such, that attracted multitudes of men and women, inclusively awaking the interest of the Shah of Persia himself. Abandoning the use of the veil, despite the millenary costume of her motherland (…) and partaking hot debates on mystical and spiritual themes, accumulated victories after victories against the male exponents and best representatives of the thought of her age”. It was exactly because of that that the Government arrested her, lapidated her on the streets, exiled her city to city: because she defended, feverously, the rights of her sisters, women. Finally, she was sentenced to death and, according to the testimonies of that age, she was incisive: You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women!” (Araújo, W., 1994).
Táhirih’s inspiration came from the Bahá’í teachings that so bravely embraced. “The Lord, peerless is He, hath made woman and man to abide with each other in the closest companionship, and to be even as a single soul” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Selections from the Writings). Appearing that we are encouraged to go back to that one un-sexual being, from whom the rib was taken. It is also said that “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” (Esslemont, J.; 1975). Showing itself adapted to the requisites of our times, we can also find on their writings:
“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” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Compilation of Compilations, Vol. II).
Labels: 'Abdu'l-Bahá, family, human nature, relationships, sex, world citizenship, world unity
Not even a month has passed and we are still analyzing 2006, the year that brought with it great challenges and appeased great torments. It was an year filled with the best and the worst of humankind, in the arts, in politics, in humanism. It was an year that made us be angels among demons and devils amongst saints.
2006 was the year that presented me to great creators of cinema like
Oliver Sacks and
George Romero and, made me find hope in the worse of circumstances in
City of God and
The Constant Gardener, of the Brazilian
Fernando Meirelles, that allowed us to find beauty and serenity in corruption and peace in human vileness, being serene without being monotonous, sad without being piegas and realistic without taking our hope away!
On television
Jack & Bobby (USA): a story of how, under circumstances of life, decisions may lead us to the highest heaven; and
Sinhá Moça (Brazil): the unstopable struggle towards the unstopable equality between human beings.
2006 was also the year of the deaths of
Milosevic (without certitude of the circumstances), of
Saddam (without certitude of correctness), and of
Pinochet (without certitude of justice), and the rebirth of
Lula and
Chavez, the
sandinism in Nicaragua, and the
doble victory in Mexico. It was the year that the governments of
Iran and of
Egypt used, once more, to tread the
Bahá'ís; the year in which they put in cause the genocides perpetrated during
the I World War and the
the II World War. The year of the
war in Syria and in Israel, of
the fall of the republicans in the US, of
the alleged fall of Blair... It was the year of the fall and of the elevation!
It was the year that permitted me assist the elevation of a formerly dream that was
Psicologia Actual - the first divulgation magazine of Psychology in Portugal – and of the completion of my
Master's final essay (with a change of subject and two months to work the new theme...). Three couple-friends elevated themselves to the ultimate commitment (marriage), and I, now, can add to the places I've visited the Basque Country (Spain/France) and Malaga (Spain), finding
Positive Psychotherapy in Wiesbaden (Germany).
But the year that was just born shall be an even more complete year (after all, the sum of its numerals is
9, the most perfect and complete number, including within all the inferior numbers). It will be during 2007 that we shall refind
Sudan and Chad and
Somalya and Ethyopia on the headlines of the world; we shall see the
Brazilian and the Venezuelan constitutions towards a change and the
European constitution towards somewhere; we shall see if
Yazdí continues with the thirst of elimination of all post-Islamism; if
second generation occidentals will understand that they are the result of a beautiful trans-culturality, and if the natives open their arms to the embeautment of their mono-cultural gardens.
On my side... I have started to work on what I like and make what I want; see movies like
The Transformers,
The Spiderman 3 and
Charlotte’s Web – cartoons that rested so much influence during my childhood – at the same time I expect do see great master pieces like
Freedom Writers,
East of Eden and
Next.
I will try to see each and every movie that transmits me persons between two worlds: the world they always considered real, correct and just, and the world that is in fact the real one, the incorrect one, the unjust and the hypocrite one – and the decisions they'll have to take between one and the other realidaty...
I shall see at the news how much it costs to save lives in Europe and in the Americas... Is it at the cost of the breeze of gardeners of lives that don’t know how to be constant?
What’s the cost of the end of a war in Africa or in Asia, or the cost of the lives lost on those wars, the cost of the rebirth during the real life? These are the questions I want to see answered during 2007.
This shall be the year that I’ll be taken by life, in all of its dimensions and aspects and shapes. 2007 shall be the year in which I will read more and write more.
Miguel Garrido, the director of my
Master course, used to say in our classes that university courses and academic titles were of few use if we didn’t read ten books per year. I went beyond that: during 2006 I've finished reading more than twenty books (many others shall walk by my side to be finished in 2007). There were three the genre and three were the authors that marked me this year, and most probably shall mark me during 2007: the pragmatic mysticism of
'Abdu'l-Bahá in
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in London, the psychological humanism of
Viktor Frankl in
Will to Meaning and the pragmatic humanism of
Orhan Pamuk in his
The White Castle. From the
Nobel prize Pamuk, I underline the following passage, in which I whish to leave you all a 2007 full of meaning:
Man must enjoy the life he has choosen, to the point that he ends up assuming it.And you: which choices did you like to make in 2006, and how are we assuming them for 2007?
Labels: 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Frankl, human nature, human rights, leadership, Pamuk, religion, world unity
