That visitor, a Persian gentleman named Abdu’l-Baha, disembarked from a ship named the Cedric into a New York City that felt the first stirrings of spring. Pedestrians on some of the New York City streets also felt the early eastern rumblings of the movement for women’s suffrage.
The women in that movement had a very simple and straightforward way of pulling together feminism statistics and the campaign for a woman’s right to vote. They paraded through the streets of New York City with the message they wanted to put before the public eye. Some women carried signs.
Such signs might say something like this: “We were voters out west; why deny our rights in the east?” Signs such as that could be seen by visitors to New York City in the year 1912. Such signs displayed the distance that then stood between feminism statistics abd the achievement of true equality for all women.
Some of the men who saw such signs no doubt turned a blind eye and a deaf hear to the parading suffragists. One man, however, respected the message on those signs. That man was the Persian visitor, the gentleman named Abdu’l-Baha..
Abdu’l-Baha had come to the United States in order to teach as large an audience as possible about the history and doctrines of the Baha’i Faith. The Baha’i Faith taught a doctrine based on a belief in progressive revelation. Baha’is believed that God had sent a series of prophets to the world, each prophet bringing a new and different message.
Baha’is supported many of the causes that struggled to gain a foothold in the society of 1912. They supported world peace, tolerance of other races, tolerance of other religions, efforts to improve feminism statistics abd efforts to bring the world closer together.
While many groups applauded those same ideals, the Baha’is had a unique reason for supporting the goals espoused by such movements. Baha’is believed that the messenger for the present day had come with a message about those very same goals. They believed that God wanted the world to become one, united world.
Baha’is believed that world unity could only come about if certain barriers had been removed. Baha’is saw racial prejudice as a barrier to world unity. They saw rejection of religion as a barrier to world unity. They saw abandonment of science as a barrier to world unity.
Baha’is had been taught to aid the advance of civilization. Baha’is saw the establishment of gender equality as an important step in that advancement. Not every Baha’i memorized the available feminism statistics, but every Baha’i appreciated the need to guarantee equality of the sexes.
Baha’is wanted humanity to be a bird carried aloft by two wings, a “male wing” and a “female wing.”