The Voice of One will Speak for Many

One particular story about the Baha’i faith still sticks out in my mind today and I think really encompasses a great deal about what the Baha’i faith is really about. The story of Táhirih still remains with me today and every time I hear her story I am so moved and empowered by what she did. Táhirih was a Persian woman who traveled through Persia attempting to encourage women to rid themselves of the oppression they lived under and teaching the cause of the Bab to all she could. Each town she traveled to she was therefore banned from and stoned repeatedly.
Her cause ran so deep and she was so impassioned by it that she proceeded to do something so daring and ultimately fatal. At the 1848 Babi conference, which was the meeting of the most widely notable religious scholars, Táhirih removed her veil exposing her naked face to all the men in a symbol of women’s freedom and equality, something no woman ever did in the presence of a man. Because of her brave actions.
Táhirih was ordered to be put to death the same summer that the Woman’s right movement took place in Seneca falls in New York. She was executed August 1852 when she was taken to a garden wearing a beautiful white wedding-like dress. The men ordered to commit the act could not do so they had a slave in a half drunken stupor strangle her to death. It was there it is said that she spoke these famous words, “You can kill me, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.”
Táhirih became known as one of the most scholarly woman of her time and even men and woman who did not agree with her message believed they had not yet seen such a woman like her and her eloquence and power of her speech left most astonished.
I am so empowered when I hear what she did not only for her faith but really for woman every where in the world. The interesting thing is she is revered as a heroine within the Baha’i faith. I found an interesting quote on http://info.bahai.org/article-1-3-7-2.html in Early Baha’i heriones it read:

“The Bahá'í writings offer a potent vision of the qualities for which women must strive and the changes they can effect in the world; and the history of the Bahá'í Faith offers many examples of outstanding women who serve as models or paradigms of this "new womanhood."

I am learning more and more as I study the faith that the Baha’i religion truly believes in a new age of religion. A time when humanity will be one race and there will be equality or all and Baha’i’s of all ages, races, and genders have to play an active role in working towards this goal because the Baha’i is really the religion to bring about this age. It was so interesting to hear about how woman have to strive to achieve the qualities of Táhirih and become strong and active women in not only their religion but within fighting for equality of all. I think the other thing that just fascinates me completely is that she was so motivated by the Baha’i teachings that she could fight so ferociously for the needs of others and could risk her life knowing she was dying for her cause.
I was so incredibly moved by this story when I was younger and revisiting it now I just am so motivated and encouraged by her fearlessness and dedication. The passion she invoked in people and the passion that came from herself is really what I think symbolizes and embodies what the Baha’i faith is trying to encourage within the love and unity of humankind they know will one day occur.

Information found from:
2003 Tahirih Justice Center: Promoting Justice for Women and Girls Worldwide. About Tahirih. Electronic Document, http://www.tahirih.org/tahirih/about/tahirih.html, accessed March 26, 2008.

Lehman, Dale. 2001 Planet Baha’i. Electronic document, http://www.planetbahai.org/cgi-bin/articles.pl?article=92, accessed March 26, 2008

2008 Baha’i faith: a fitting role for a changing world. Electronic document, http://www.bahai.us/tahirih, accessed March 26, 2008.


Quote from:
2006 Baha’i topics: an information resource of the baha’i international community. Early Baha’i heroines. Electronic document, http://info.bahai.org/article-1-3-7-2.html, accessed March 26, 2008.

Images from google image:
*http://farrid.20m.com/images/thrfa.jpg
*http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/graphics/vol4/tahirih.gif
*http://tahirih.org/app/img/pool/tahirihpainting.jpg