From the beginning of existence until the Promised Day men
retained superiority over women in every respect… But in this wondrous
Dispensation, the supreme outpouring of the Glorious Lord became the cause of
manifest achievements by women. Some handmaidens arose who excelled men in the
arena of knowledge. They arose with such love and spirituality that they became
the cause of the outpouring of the bounty of the Sovereign Lord upon mankind,
and with their sanctity, purity and attributes of the spirit led a great many
to the shore of unity. They became a guiding torch to the wanderers in the
wastes of bewilderment, and enkindled the despondent in the nether world with
the flame of the love of the Lord. This is a bounteous characteristic of this wondrous
Age which hath granted strength to the weaker sex and hath bestowed masculine
might upon womanhood....
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a Tablet, 'The Compilation of
Compilations, vol. II, Women)
