An Examination of Androgyny and Sex Specification in the Kitab- i-Aqdas

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to consider the use of male definitions and standpoints in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas in relation to the Bahá'í principle of equality of the sexes, to evaluate the concept of mutatis mutandis and the laws to which it does not apply within the context of a rejection of androgyny and androcentric language, and the development of a feminist hermeneutic. To develop a feminist perspective it is necessary to consider the Kitáb-i-Aqdas with particular reference to the use of androcentric language. A fundamental consideration of the development of feminist theology and of the wider feminist hermenetitic has been the rejection of the assumption that humanity is male.For where the male has been thought to represent the whole of humanity, the half has been mistaken for the whole, so that what has been described has been distorted in such a way that we cannot see it correctly. As long as men believe that their experiences, viewpoint, and ideas represent all of human experience and all of human thought, abstract definition and description of the real will alike be inaccurate.1