Aug 15, 2019

Role of education in removing “oppression and injustice, of unrighteousness, irregularity and disorder”

…the primary cause of oppression and injustice, of unrighteousness, irregularity and disorder, is the people's lack of religious faith and the fact that they are uneducated. When, for example, the people are genuinely religious and are literate and well-schooled, and a difficulty presents itself, they can apply to the local authorities; if they do not meet with justice and secure their rights and if they see that the conduct of the local government is incompatible with the Divine good pleasure and the king's justice, they can then take their case to higher courts and describe the deviation of the local administration from the spiritual law. Those courts can then send for the local records of the case and in this way justice will be done. At present, however, because of their inadequate schooling, most of the population lack even that vocabulary to explain what they want. 
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha  (‘The Secret of Divine Civilization’; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, Baha’i Education)