Two Wings of One Bird

*A retelling for children, based on **Mahmúd's Diary**, from the days 'Abdu'l-Bahá spent in the city of Denver in the autumn of 1912.*

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One afternoon, in a house in the city of Denver, about twenty women were waiting in a living room. A husband or two had come along as well, but the room belonged to the women. They had gathered for one special reason: a guest was coming to speak to them, and they had been hoping for this visit for a long time.

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The woman whose house it was had invited them all. In those days, in many parts of the world, women were not allowed to vote. They could not help choose the leaders of their towns and their countries the way men could. The hostess thought this was deeply unfair, and she had spent years working to change it — speaking up, gathering friends, refusing to give up. People who worked for the right of women to vote were called *suffragists*, and she was one of the most respected suffragists in all of Colorado.

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So she had asked a wise visitor to come and talk to her circle of women about something close to all their hearts: whether women and men were truly equal, and why.

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That visitor was 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

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He arrived and sat down in the chair they offered Him. He did not begin with a long, fancy introduction. He simply started to speak, plainly and warmly, about why the equality of women and men is not just a nice idea, but something woven into the very heart of how the world is meant to be.

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Then He gave them a picture they would never forget. *"The world of humanity has two wings,"* He said, *"one is woman, the other man."* Think of a bird, He told them. A bird cannot fly with only one strong wing while the other stays small and weak. It needs both wings, equally strong, beating together. And so it is with the whole human family. Until women and men are both able to grow to their full strength, the human race cannot rise up and become all it is meant to become.

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This was not just a pretty comparison, He explained. It was a real description of something humanity actually had to do before it could grow up and reach its bright future.

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The women in the room were working hard to win the vote, and so 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke about that too. Yes, He told them, the vote was important — it was a necessary tool, and they were right to work for it. But the vote by itself was not enough. Something even deeper was needed first.

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That deeper thing was *education*. Girls and women, He said, in every part of society, needed to be taught and to learn just as fully as boys and men were. After all, what good is being allowed to vote if you have never had the chance to learn? A vote in the hands of someone who was never taught, He pointed out, is not yet the powerful thing it could be.

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Then He said something that may have surprised them. In some ways, He explained, the education of girls and women was even *more* important than the education of boys and men. Why? Because, He said, a mother is the very first teacher every child ever has. Long before a child goes to a school, the mother is already teaching, every single day. So whatever the mothers of the world know and understand, they pass on to all the children they raise. To teach the women of today, then, is really to shape the whole world of tomorrow.

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The women listened closely to all of this. When 'Abdu'l-Bahá finished, several of them had questions, and they asked Him about how women took part in the work of the Bahá'í community. He answered each question carefully and kindly, the way He always did, never rushing anyone.

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Afterward, there were refreshments, and the talking went on a while longer in the comfortable room. Before He left, 'Abdu'l-Bahá turned to the woman whose home it was and thanked her in particular. He thanked her, He said, for *"the courage of opening her home"* to an idea that many people of that time still argued about. And He told her something wonderful: one day, He promised, this truth — that women and men are equal — would belong to everyone, everywhere, all across the human family.

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It is easy to think that fairness will simply happen on its own. But 'Abdu'l-Bahá showed that bigger heart that day. Standing up for what is right takes courage, and it takes more than one good rule — it takes teaching every child, girls and boys alike, so that the whole world, like a bird with two strong wings, can finally rise and fly.

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["Denver: The Master and the Women's Auxiliary"](/stories/md-denver-women-1912).*

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