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34: The most momentous question of this day is international peace and… |
The most momentous question of this day is international peace and
arbitration, and universal peace is impossible without universal suffrage.
Children are educated by the women. The mother bears the troubles and
anxieties of rearing the child, undergoes the ordeal of its birth and training.
Therefore, it is most difficult for mothers to send to the battlefield those
upon whom they have lavished such love and care. Consider a son reared and
trained twenty years by a devoted mother. What sleepless nights and restless,
anxious days she has spent! Having brought him through dangers and
difficulties to the age of maturity, how agonizing then to sacrifice him upon
the battlefield! Therefore, the mothers will not sanction war nor be satisfied
with it. So it will come to pass that when women participate fully and equally
in the affairs of the world, when they enter confidently and capably the great
arena of laws and politics, war will cease; for woman will be the obstacle and
hindrance to it. This is true and without doubt.
(“The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912”, pp. 134–35) [34] |