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The woman of the East has progressed. Formerly in India, Persia and throughout the Orient, she was not considered a human being. Certain Arab tribes counted their women in with the live stock. In their language the noun for woman also meant donkey; that is, the same name applied to both and a man's wealth was accounted by the number of these beasts of burden he possessed. The worst insult one could hurl at a man was to cry out, "Thou woman!" (86:2) From the moment BAHA'O'LLAH appeared, this changed. He did away with the idea of distinction between the sexes, proclaiming them equal in every capacity. (86:3) In former times it was considered wiser that woman should not know how to read or write; she should occupy herself only with drudgery. She was very ignorant. BAHA'O'LLAH declares the education of woman to be of more importance than that of man. If the mother be ignorant, even if the father have great knowledge, the child's education will be at fault, for education begins with the milk. A child at the breast is like a tender branch that the gardener can train as he wills.
(86:4)
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