I think this video is getting attention online because of how effective it is at communicating its message, but what’s really inspiring is the message itself. It sounds like it’s in tune with a fundamental Baha’i teaching – that if a family can only afford to education some of their children, preference must be given to the girls because they will become the educators when they become adults. This is an excerpt from a talk given by a Baha’i leader named ‘Abdu’l-Baha somewhere in North America way back in 1912:

Furthermore, the education of woman is more necessary and important than that of man, for woman is the trainer of the child from its infancy. If she be defective and imperfect herself, the child will necessarily be deficient; therefore, imperfection of woman implies a condition of imperfection in all 18 mankind, for it is the mother who rears, nurtures and guides the growth of the child. This is not the function of the father. If the educator be incompetent, the educated will be correspondingly lacking. This is evident and incontrovertible. Could the student be brilliant and accomplished if the teacher is illiterate and ignorant? The mothers are the first educators of mankind; if they be imperfect, alas for the condition and future of the race.

…

It has been objected by some that woman is not equally capable with man and that she is deficient by creation. This is pure imagination. The difference in capability between man and woman is due entirely to opportunity and education. Heretofore woman has been denied the right and privilege of equal development. If equal opportunity be granted her, there is no doubt she would be the peer of man. History will evidence this. In past ages noted women have arisen in the affairs of nations and surpassed men in their accomplishments…

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I can’t wait to get old.