Celia Taghdiri

Celia Taghdiri says she’s been fascinated by Tahirih since childhood. A heroine in the Middle East, Tahirih championed women’s independence and democracy in the mid-1800s. Her views and actions led to her death.

“Tahirih was my role model when I was in my teens. I’m going to hold her up as a role model for my daughters,” says Ms. Taghdiri, who came to the United States in 1979 from Iran and lives in Vista, Calif., just north of San Diego, with her husband and daughters, 3 and 5.

No nation can achieve success unless education is accorded in all its citizens. Therefore, it is the bounden duty of parents to convince their children to be staunch in their faith. Every praiseworthy deed is born out of the light of religion.

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Fulya Vekiloglu, Director for the Advancement of Women for the Baha’i International Community(left), Gerald Filson(centre), and Elizabeth Wright(right) stand together at the CSW event

Adopting a long-term perspective instead of being merely reactive, aligning national budgets with particular sensitivity to women and girls, and engaging religion and religious leaders in the work of changing long-held practices and attitudes towards women were among the key points1 raised this year by the Baha’i International Community’s Office for the Advancement of Women during the course of the 52nd United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (the CSW), held at the UN in New York from 25 February to 7 March.

UNITED NATIONS, 26 February 2008 (BWNS) -- Equality between the sexes can have a real world economic effect, potentially improving the economic performance of nations and corporations.

That was among the ideas offered by noted economist Augusto Lopez-Claros, speaking yesterday at the United Nations on behalf of the Baha'i International Community.