I Blog Poetry and Prose

Gender Equality and the International Day of the Girl Child

Istijlál (Majesty), 15 Mashíyyat (Will) 175 B.E. - Thursday, October 11, 2018

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October 11 is International Day of the Girl Child  . What are your favorite girl power songs? Share 11.

The goal of the International Day of the Girl Child is to focus attention on and find "solutions to the unique challenges that girls around the world face every day."1 Two of the main problems facing girls across the planet are gender equality and education. Lack of gender equality impacts every woman and girl, in every strata of society, across the Earth. Lack of gender equality forces women and girls to remain second class citizens with very few if any rights. Without education there can be no gender equality because women remain unempowered and ignorant of their true station and abilities.

"In proclaiming the oneness of mankind He [Baha’u’llah] taught that men and women are equal in the sight of God and that there is no distinction to be made between them. The only difference between them now is due to lack of education and training. If woman is given equal opportunity of education, distinction and estimate of inferiority will disappear."

Abdu’l-Baha2

Human beings are dual natured creatures, that is we have a physical body and a spiritual soul. Women and men have different attributes and different abilities, these difference do no preclude gender equality; in fact, these difference can enhance it, because these differences bring things into any relationship. It does not matter whether the relationship is social, business, or personal. Without gender equality neither men nor women can achieve their full potential as human beings. I suspect this is one thing that both sides of the argument forget or ignore.

The best thing anyone, men and women, can do for girls on the International Day of the Girl Child is to promote education and gender equality. There are two reasons for this. First, women are the first teachers of their children, and if they are uneducated there is a good possibility they will raise ignorant or uneducated children. Second, women and men are the main components of human society and culture, which makes them the wings of civilization. A bird cannot fly if one of its wings is weak and undeveloped, and the something goes for civilization. Human civilization, in this age, cannot prosper without gender equality.

Footnotes
1  https://nationaldaycalendar.com/international-day-of-the-girl-child-october-11/
2  The Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 174-175