Bahá’í World/Volume 2/The World-Wide Influence of Quarratu’l-‘Ayn

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[Page 257]

THE WORLD-WIDE INFLUENCE OF QURRATU’L-‘AYN

BY

STANWOOD COBB

(From Star of the West)

“Amongst the women of our own time is Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, the daughter of a Muḥammadan priest. At the time of the appearance of the Báb she showed such tremendous courage and power that all who heard her were astonished. She threw aside her veil, despite the immemorial custom of the Persians, and although it was considered impolite to speak with men, this heroic woman carried on controversies with the most learned men, and in every meeting she vanquished them. When imprisoned she said, ‘You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women’.”—‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ.

THE power of a great life to inspire other lives is vividly typified in the remarkable and dramatic influence of the great Persian feminist and poetess, Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, upon the New Woman Movement in Austria. The relation between this heroine of Persia, one of the greatest women the world has ever produced, and Marianne Hainisch, the greatest pioneer and leader in the Woman Movement of Austria for the last fifty years, is indeed dramatic. It came about in this way:

At the time when Mme. Hainisch, now the mother of the President of Austria, was turning toward work for the emancipation of womanhood, she was in the very closest friendship with Marie von Najmajer, who was also devoting herself to the work of womanhood and of humanity. Marie von Najmajer, the most gifted poetess of Austria in the last generation, never married. It was not that she did not have love for man, or that she had any antagonistic thoughts toward marriage, but because she wished to give her entire life to humanity.

Into the life of this poetess came, about 1870, a great inspiration from reading the career of Qurratu’l-‘Ayn—the story of whose life and martyrdom in the early days of the Bahá’í Movement is well known to the readers of the Bahá’í Magazine, Star of the West. Marie von Najmajer, as the result of this inspiration, did her greatest creative work—a long narrative poem entitled “Qurratu’l-‘Ayn”—based upon the life of this heroine. It is her greatest poem and one of the greatest pieces of poetic work Austria has produced, published in book form in 1874. From this beautiful poem a brief passage may be quoted in translation from the German in order to show both the poetic quality of this author and the character of Qurratu’l-‘Ayn in its power to inspire:

The news of Qurratu’l-‘Ayn’s approach

Was quickly spread to borders of the Caspian Sea,

And to Bedesht came many folk in pilgrimage

To meet her on the coming day.

And so one day upon the forest’s edge,

Where many tents were brightly stretched

Surrounded by gay carpet spread,

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There streamed the people in, and lo, Qurratu’l-‘Ayn

Appeared, the people of Mázindarán to greet.

They all expected a haughty woman to see

Masterful, of lordly mien

And of proud glance.

And behold there came she from the forest

Tender-miened and lovely as a sunbeam

Breaking through a crown of foliage green;

In the highest simplicity, like an angel,

Modestly smiling as a beseeching child.

Yet as she, in clear and simple terms, began to speak

She appeared with every word to grow;

And continually by inspiration carried forward

She stood at last before them like a goddess

And cried inflamed, "Now the time is come

When God in spirit shall be worshiped and in truth.

There is come to us a New Light, a New Law;

And heart and soul and spirit shall rejoice.

“Yet such a great event not without struggle comes to pass!

Oh shrink not from a thousand sacrifices,

You chosen people, you children of this epoch!

There has come to us a Son of Light.

Arise, you men of Irán, give testimony of the truth!

“And also you-my own poor sex-you women, O awake!

The hour comes when no more in the harem

Hopeless and imprisoned shall you wait.

For other safer stiller days keep your innate timidity and fear;

But now prove yourselves companions to your husbands

In the struggle for humanity’s highest good.

The time is great! Oh friends, be great as it!”

Then rang a thousand-throated cry to greet her—

Inspired, sobbing and in jubilation—

“Prophetess, behold us ready and prepared

For all. We swear it to you, by God and by the Báb.”

“Then let us pray for strength and unity,” she called.

It was at the time of the publication of this poem that Marie von Najmajer and Marianne Hainisch, working in close unity, became the great moulders of thought in Austria for the equality of men and women and for the education of all boys and girls. The life of Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, stirring the creative genius and the human soul of the Austrian poetess, reached also Marianne Hainisch and became a great inspiration in the joint lives of these two noble women for the freedom of womanhood in Austria, as Qurratu’l-‘Ayn had been the great pioneer and martyr for the freedom of the women in Persia.

It was in 1870, Mme. Hainisch told Miss Martha Root—to whose interview with the Austrian leader we are indebted for the material for this article—that Mme. Hainisch first met Marie von Najmajer in a great assembly. Marie had been reading a great deal about Qurratu’l-‘Ayn and the history of the Báb and she decided to write a poem to portray the wonderful life of Qurratu’l-‘Ayn and the teachings of the Bab. This meeting was the beginning of a great friendship between Marianne and Marie. They decided [Page 259]that they would work to get better schools for women. Marianne Hainisch spoke openly and in public, pleading that the Government should furnish schools for girls and that they should have the same privileges as boys in education. They demanded complete rights for women. Marie von Najmajer, blessed with ample means, remained single and devoted all her life and much of her means to this cause of womanhood. Marianne Hainisch, also fortunate in the possession of ample means; used it to aid her in the work so dear to her heart. The day when these two women met in 1870 may be said therefore to be the day when the New Woman Movement was founded in Austria.

Miss Martha L. Root, Bahá’í lecturer and writer, recently interviewed Marianne Hainisch in her quiet country home near Vienna. From her own lips she received this story of her work, and that of Marie von Najmajer, for the New Woman Movement in that country. These two women from 1870 on worked with the greatest enthusiasm for the better education of women, for the rights of women to enter the professions.

Marianne Hainisch said in the course of this interview: “Men could have their shops and their estates, they could do any work they wished, but women did not have the privilege of going to the universities. Marie von Najmajer and I strove to attain for girls opportunities to study just as boys did. We worked to secure for girls also gymnasium exercises, physical culture, and all other opportunities that were open to the boys of Austria. I was always a liberalist, a liberalist in religious thought as well as in the work of women. I worked, not that the rich alone should have education, but that all other women of the working classes might enjoy life.”

“Miss Root” she said, “all this that you can speak about so freely, in my day and in the day of Qurratu’l-‘Ayn was not so easy to speak about; but we have succeeded, and now women do have privileges and opportunities as do men.”

“Mme. Hainisch lives very simply,” writes Miss Root, “in a most charming small house with lovely gardens. She is very active, and though I arrived one-half hour ahead of time, she was ready to receive me. A man from one of the syndicates from America called while I was there and asked for an interview regarding politics. Mme. Hainisch answered him, ‘I am not a bit interested in politics. I have nothing to say to you. I am only interested in world peace, constructive work for women and for the welfare of humanity.’”

From her seventieth birthday until now, when she is eighty-eight, her birthday anniversary has been celebrated so lovingly by her friends in Austria that she now, as she tells Miss Root, goes out of the city on that day so that her friends cannot spend their precious time doing things for her. Her son, who is President of Austria, said to her on the occasion of her last anniversary, “Do you not want more—can I not give you something?” And she replied, “I only want what is necessary to live.”

Mme. Hainisch, like Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, is not a masculine type of woman. As a girl she was very beautiful; as a woman tender, sympathetic, loving, fulfilling all the duties of womanhood in her home, neglecting none of those in her larger work for women.

From the collection of appreciations published in connection with her seventieth birthday, the following quotation may be of interest: “A womanly ideal for all time is Marianne Hainisch, a real woman in her charm, her tenderness, her joy of life, beautiful also in the loving quality of her heart, daughter, wife, mother, perfect as the Creator willed her to be; yet a champion also of all others, for the rights of a new day, weariless fighter against bigotry and barbarism. For livelihood, for bread the New Woman Movement called, but the competition with the trained intelligence of man could only be undertaken when the

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[Page 261]intelligence of woman should receive equal training, so she fought step by step on the heated battle field of schools for girls. Quietly and unnoticed she founded, as a private school, the first high school for girls in Vienna. Today this school is flourishing and sends yearly a group of graduates to the universities. Never complaining, she has through her inspiration and zeal for this goal, won friends and assistance until the ‘Association for Wider Education of Women’ has become a power in our city. For girls she has striven long and earnestly for complete education and professional training, and for the boys also in our schools, with the warm heart of mother and grandmother. She has given her strength and influence to work against antiquated methods and un pedagogic harshness."

That so energetic and so broad-minded a champion for right should strive not only for the rights of women but also for international friendship of various nations is to be expected. And so Mme. Hainisch has thrown herself into the peace movement with the deepest conviction and the warmest zeal. (Mme. Hainisch was for years President of the League of Austrian Women's Clubs.) Through her influence this Austrian League joined the world association of women, the International Council of Women. In 1899 Mme. Hainisch attended the second Convention of this Movement in London; later she attended Conventions in Berlin and in Toronto, Canada. Her work for world peace has therefore been as distinguished as her work for women’s rights.

A glowing tribute to this remarkable woman is a brief poem by her dear friend Marie von Najmajer:

Oh say not with such a modest mien

You cannot poetize,

For to me appears in you

The purest form of poetry.

That beautiful quick-kindled fire

In your eyes and countenance;

The peculiar charm which ever flows

From your sweet and gentle soul;

The lovely grace which unites in you

The earnest fighting soul of purest woman;

Your strife, to all the light to bring,—

Is to me the most inspiring poetry.

That to this noble woman, Mme. Hainisch, mother of a President, founder of the New Woman Movement for Austria, and successful champion of it for over fifty years, who had at the beginning of her career been touched by the life of Qurratu’l-‘Ayn and the Báb,—that to this woman in her last and gloriously glowing days should come the message of the Bahá’í Movement, is but fitting and perhaps destined. She had not heard of the Bahá’í Movement, and how the message of Bahá’u’lláh was the fulfillment of what the Báb had preached, until Miss Root brought it to her attention. She received the book, Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, by Dr. J. E. Esslemont, very graciously and informed herself of its contents. Though she could not attend the lectures on the Bahá’í Movement given by Miss Root, she asked her dearest friend to go and report to her every detail of the lectures. Afterwards this friend brought to Miss Root a gift for the Bahá’í Assembly of Vienna-the books of Marie von Najmajer. An extra copy of the poem “Qurratu’l-‘Ayn,” given to Miss Root personally has been presented by Miss Root to the Bahá’í Archives of the United States, and it is from this book that we have quoted in this article.

Martha Root says of Mme. Hainisch: “She is the greatest woman I have met in Austria. Studying the Woman’s Movement of Austria we see that Mme. Hainisch and Marie von Najmajer have been the great moulders of thought for [Page 262]the equality of men and women and for equal education of the girl and boy in Austria, and now there are thousands of women in Austria with this great ideal. I pondered in my heart how Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, the first woman martyr in Persia for the work of religious freedom of women, for universal education and universal suffrage for women, had influenced these two beautiful young women in Austria so spiritually wide-awake.”

Just as the life of the Persian heroine proved such a great inspiration to these noble women of Austria whose work has been so effective for womanhood and for humanity, so may the life of Marianne Hainisch here presented bring inspiration to all by her noble work and life, blessed with ample means for the gratification of self-interests but rising above the pleasures and charm of society. From an early age throwing her great heart, soul and brilliant mind and charm of personality into the continual struggle that was not without its hardships and persecution; fighting always for the good not only for women but for men,—she stands in her old age like a mountain aglow with the bright light of the rising sun. It is the Light of the New Age which shines upon her brow.