I have said in America and Europe that there is only the
question of votes in which women have been held back and claim equality with
men. In California they even have this right. In all other respects it is men
who must demand equality of rights. How many men in Europe and America work from
morning until evening and whatever they save is spent on adornments and jewelry
and colorful clothes and the latest fashions for their wives who spend their
time in pleasure and enjoyment? In reality, these poor men are servants of
their wives.
Once a respectable gentleman came with his wife to see me. A
little dust had settled on the wife's shoes. She instantly asked her husband to
clean them. As the poor man was cleaning her shoes he glanced at me. I said,
`Madam! Do you also clean your husband's shoes?' She replied that she cleaned
his clothes. I said, `No, that is not equality. You, too, must clean his
shoes.' Now then, it would be better if you occasionally stand up for the
rights of men.
- 'Abdu'l-Baha (Words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, Chicago, November 1, 1912, recorded by
Mahmud Zarqani; ‘Mahmud’s Diary’)
