Apr 17th, 2009
Women Advancing
Baha’u'llah emphasized and established the equality of man and woman … The happiness of mankind will be realized when women and men coordinate and advance equally, for each is the complement and helpmeet of the other. Bahai writings
Moojan and I spent the long bank holiday weekend at the Baha’i spring school, held again this year at Mount St Mary’s College, Spinkhill in Derbyshire. A beautiful location and lovely grounds. We took our five year old grandson Dreyfus with us and he loved it. The children’s classes are always excellent at this school.
When I returned home, among the emails was one thanking me for participating in the commemoration of International Women’s Day in Bedfordshire at the end of March - a week or so late but useful for me because I had been in New York at the Commission on the Status of Women on the actual day itself, representing the Baha’i International Community and the European Baha’i Business Forum (EBBF). International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrates the accomplishments of women and draws attention to the continuing efforts to secure full gender equality. The local IWD was sponsored by Bedfordshire Business Women, whose president this year is my friend Pauline Stewart (who, by the way, does an amazing leadership programme called `Walking with Wolves’ ).
The IWD was held at the Sculpture Gallery at Woburn Abbey and women - and a few men - from all over the county attended. The lovely lunch was not eaten by me, as it was held during the Baha’i Fast, but it was a good chance to network and to talk about some of the issues arising out of the CSW. I represented the UK National Committee for UNIFEM, with an exhibition.
Another friend, Judy Oliver, who I have known for years (believe it or not, back in the 80s we used to run a market stall together with a couple of other friends, selling used clothes! - now we sit on the Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation - well, Bedfordshire is a very small county!), came along to the IWD and filmed bits for her latest venture, Local News TV. I was very pleased to see that she used bits of my interview about UNIFEM in the footage.
But while all this is going on here, always in my mind is what is happening to our Baha’i friends in Iran. They are suffering yet another wave of persecution and arbitrary arrests. Do keep up to date with developments on Iran Press Watch.
Technorati Tags: Bahai, Baha’i, International Women’s Day, Baha’i International Community, European Baha’i Business Forum, EBBF, Bedfordshire Business Women, Pauline Steward, Walking with Wolves, Woburn Abbey Sculpture Gallery, UNIFEM UK, Judy Oliver, Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation, Local News TV, Iran Press Watch, Iran, persecution of Baha’is