Persia
While in some distance in culture and language, the events of the Conference of Badasht presented progress on the concerns of first wave feminism. There is a synchronicity in time and a likeness in theme and events between Persia (later named Iran) and the United States between the conference at Badasht and the Seneca Falls Convention. First the conference happened over three weeks from late June to mid-July 1848 and the Seneca Falls Convention happened in mid-July 1848. Both conferences had women (Tahirih and Elizabeth Cady Stanton) take strong stances on the role of women in the public arena that some attending reacted to harshly. And lastly leading men present (Quddús and Frederick Douglass) supported these calls during the meetings healing the breach. Some even see a parallel in the background discussions that are partially documented to arrange how things would be brought up and settled.
The conference of Badasht is considered by Bahá'ís as a signal moment that demonstrated that Islamic Sharia law had been abrogated as well as a key demonstration of the thrust of raising the social position of women. Although the unveiling led to accusations of immorality the Báb responded by supporting her position and naming her the Pure (Táhirih). Modern women scholars review this kind of accusation as part of a pattern faced by women leaders and writers then and since in a way that Azar Nafisi says "…the Islamic regime today… fears them and feels vulnerable in the face of a resistance that is not just political but existential." See the Bahá'í Faith and gender equality.
Read more about this topic: First-wave Feminism
Famous quotes containing the word persia:
“Life is a long Dardenelles, My Dear Madam, the shores whereof are bright with flowers, which we want to pluck, but the bank is too high; & so we float on & on, hoping to come to a landing-place at last—but swoop! we launch into the great sea! Yet the geographers say, even then we must not despair, because across the great sea, however desolate & vacant it may look, lie all Persia & the delicious lands roundabout Damascus.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)