In the Baha'i Faith Women are Equal to Men... but they are not allowed to serve the UHJ.

By Juan Cole

The belief that women were not eligible for service on local Baha'i institutions was based on the language of certain passages of the Kitab-i Aqdas which refer to the House of Justice. Of course, as we have noted above, these passages do not make a distinction between local, national, and international bodies. The institution as a whole is addressed. Baha'u'llah twice uses the Arabic word rijal (gentlemen) to refer to the members of the Houses of Justice. He says:

O ye Men (rijal) of Justice! Be ye in the realm of God shepherds unto His sheep... [22]

And:

We have designated a third of all fines for the Place of Justice (maqarr al-'adl), and exhort its members (rijal) to show forth perfect equity...[23]

The word rijal (plural; singular is rajul) is exclusively masculine in Arabic. A dictionary would render an English definition of rajul as: man, gentleman; important man, statesman, nobleman. (A related form of the word, rujula or rujuliyya, would be translated as: masculinity; virility.) Since Baha'u'llah addressed the members of the Houses of Justice using this term, it appears that it was universally assumed that only men were eligible for service on such institutions.

The word rijal, meaning men, is used in the Qur'an and is part of an important passage which establishes the relationship between men and women in Islam (Qur'an 4:34):

Men (rijal) are superior to women (nisa') on account of the qualities with which God hath gifted the one above the other, and on account of the outlay they make from their substance for them.

However, Baha'u'llah has in His Writings clearly established the principle of the equality of men and women. It is therefore possible that when He used the word rijal He did not intend its normal meaning.

Although rijal is the normal Arabic word for men (as opposed to women), there are passages in the Writings of Baha'u'llah that indicate that He may have used the term in a special sense. Such passages suggest that, in a Baha'i context, the word may be understood to include women. Baha'u'llah has stated that women in His Cause are all to be accorded the same station as men - and He has used the very term rijal to make this point. For example, He writes:

Today the Baha'i women (lit., the leaves of the Holy Tree) must guide the handmaidens of the earth to the Lofty Horizon with the utmost purity and sanctity. Today the handmaidens of God are regarded as gentlemen (rijal). Blessed are they! Blessed are they! [24]

And in another passage:

Today whoever among the handmaidens attains the knowledge of the Desire of the World [i.e., Baha'u'llah] is considered a gentleman (rajul) in the Divine Book. [25]

And in another place:

...many a man (rajul) hath waited expectant for God's Revelation, and yet when the Light shone forth from the horizon of the world, all but a few turned their faces away from it. Whosoever from amongst the handmaidens hath recognized the Lord of all Names is recorded in the Book as one of those men (rijal) by the Pen of the Most High. [26]

Likewise, 'Abdu'l-Baha in one of his Tablets has made the same point:

Verily, according to Baha'u'llah, women are judged as gentlemen (rijal). [27]

However, such passages were not raised as an issue at the time, either because the believers were not aware of them, or because they did not find them applicable. Certainly, the American Baha'is had no access to these texts and had to rely on the understandings of the Persian teachers who were sent by 'Abdu'l-Baha to guide them.