- 1848-06-26 —
The Conference of Badasht Bahá'u'lláh, who hosted and directed the event, rented three gardens, one for Quddús, another for Táhirih and the third for Himself. [Bab168; GPB31, 68; MF200]
The conference coincided with the removal of the Báb to Tabríz for interrogation in July. It was held near the village of Sháhrúd in Semnan province. [BBRSM23; DB292]
- `The primary purpose of that gathering was to implement the revelation of the Bayán by a sudden, a complete and dramatic break with the past — with its order, its ecclesiasticism, its traditions, and ceremonials. The subsidiary purpose of the conference was to consider the means of emancipating the Báb from His cruel confinement in Chihríq.' [BBRSM23; BKG43; DB297–8; GPB31, 157]
- From the beginning of His ministry the Báb had implicitly claimed some higher spiritual station than merely that of being the "bábu'l-imám" and in the early months of 1848 while still in prison in Máh-Kú He put forward these claims to his companions. He proclaimed HImself to be the Imam Mahdi, the promised Q´'im (He who will arise), the inaugurator of the Resurrection and the abrogator of the Islamic holy law. [BBRSM23]
- Bab167 says that the Bábís did not come to Badasht to make plans to rescue the Báb.
- It was attended by 81 believers and lasted 22 days. [BKG43–4, 46; DB292–3; GPB312]
- Each day Bahá'u'lláh revealed a Tablet, and on each believer He conferred a new name. Each day an Islamic law was abrogated. Henceforth, when the Báb was addressing the believers, He used the new name that Bahá'u'lláh had bestowed upon them. [DB293; GPB32]
- See BKG44–5; DB293 and MF201 for the story of the central event, Táhirih's confrontation with Quddús and removal of her veil.
Ṭáhirih, seizing upon the opportunity, arose and, unveiled, came forth from the garden. She proceeded towards the tent of Bahá'u'lláh crying out and proclaiming: "I am the Trumpet-blast; I am the Bugle-call!"—which are two of the signs of the Day of Resurrection mentioned in the Qur'án. Calling out in this fashion, she entered the tent of Bahá'u'lláh. No sooner had she entered than Bahá'u'lláh instructed the believers to recite the Súrih of the Event from the Qur'án, a Súrih that describes the upheaval of the Day of Resurrection.
[Twelve Table Talks given by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká, no. 9, "Ṭáhirih and the Conference of Badasht"]
- Also see Bab167–9; BBD31–2; BBRSM46; BKG43–7; DB292–8; RB2:353.
- See The World-Wide Influence of Qurratul-'Ayn by Standwood Cobb.
- 1848-07-19 —
The Women's Rights Convention was held in the Wesleyan Chapel at Seneca Falls, NY. The principle organizer was Lucretia Mott, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as its driving intellect. A significant role was played by an African-American man, an abolitionist and a recently freed slave, Frederick Douglass. The convention adopted a Declaration of Rights and Sentiments that consisted of 11 resolutions including the right for women to vote. The signatories were the 68 women and 32 men in attendance. The right for women to vote became part of the United States Constitution in 1920. [The Calling: Tahirih of Persia and her American Contemporaries p114-160, "Seneca Falls First Woman's Rights Convention of 1848: The Sacred Rites of the Nation"
by Bradford W. Miller (Journal of Bahá'í Studies, 8.3, 1998)]
- This conference has been compared to the Conference of Badasht with respect to the emancipation of women and entrenched prejudices.
- Tahirih and Women's Suffrage written by / on behalf of Universal House of Justice in which they deal with the question of the relationship between Táhirih and women's sufferage as well as the station of Táhirih herself.
- 2025-01-22 — Iranian security forces arrested eleven Bahá'í women without arrest warrants or prior notification in a series of shocking home raids. Security agents reportedly scaled walls, coerced neighbors, and posed as utility workers to force entry into the women’s homes, subjecting them to distressing and invasive searches. Neighbors were intimidated into silence and children in the homes were left traumatized by the operation. Several of these women were mothers of young children and infants or were caregivers to aging parents, seemingly a preferred demographic for victims of this sort of persecution.
The incident came just two days before Iran’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, where the country’s systematic persecution of the Bahá'ís is expected to be scrutinized. [BIC News 22 January 2025]
- 2025-03-10 — The global community marked the thirtieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). The sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women took place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 10 to 21 March 2025. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world were invited to attend the session.
The Bahá'í International Community released a statement titled In full partnership: Women’s advancement as a prerequisite for peaceful societies, emphasizing that true equality requires a transformation that goes beyond policy reforms to address the spiritual and cultural roots of inequality.
Liliane Nkunzimana, a BIC representative from the New York Office, noted: The 12 critical areas of concern articulated in Beijing were an important evolution in equality of women and men. However, many of these advances have been eroded by policy rollbacks and other forces, from the grassroots through to the international stage. This is a disturbing regression. And it should prompt us to identify more enduring approaches to transformation.” [BWNS1783; BWNS1719; Insights from the Field: Podcast explores advances in gender equality in India]
The pdf of the statement can be download here. - 2025-09-17 — The launch of In Full Partnership: Thirty Years of Women’s Advancement at the United Nations and Beyond: A Collection of Statements by the Bahá'í International Community on the subject of Gender Equality.. The occasion commemorated the Fourth Conference on Women held in Beijing. Over 100 participants joined the launch event, both online and in person.
The publication offers hopeful and practical examples, drawing on the efforts of Baha’i communities in over 100,000 localities worldwide, showcasing how collaborative efforts with friends, co-workers, and government officials can foster societies that embody the principle of gender equality.
The publication, which will be published in hardcopy in the near future, covers the original 12 “critical areas of concern” outlined in the Beijing Declaration and introduces two additional significant themes: the role of men and boys in the advancement of women, and the intersections between faith and feminism. [BIC News 17 Sep 25; BIC News 2 Sep 25]
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