It may be that letters addressed to the women believers do
indeed contain certain passages written by way of encouragement, but the
purpose of such passages is to show that, in this wondrous Dispensation,
certain women have outshone certain men—not that all women have excelled all
men! The members of the Spiritual Assembly should do all they can to give
encouragement to the women. In this Dispensation one should not think in terms
of “men” and “women”: all are under the shadow of the Word of God and, as they
strive more diligently, so shall their reward be greater—be they men or women
or the frailest of people.... As for the large number of Tablets addressed to
women enjoining them to teach the Cause: since the letters arriving in the Holy
Land come for the most part from women, and only rarely from men, it is natural
that women should be written to more frequently than men....
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a Tablet, New resources available at Online Baha’i Reference Library of
the Baha’i World Center)
