Abdul Baha while in Europe and America had much to say about the relation of man and woman. In New York City, after referring the audience to various books of the Bahai religion, he said: "Similarly all the other tablets of Baha Ullah contain _new_ teachings, which have not been revealed in any books of the past Prophets. The sixth new teaching is the equality between men and women. This is peculiar to the teachings of Baha Ullah, for all other religions placed men above women."[314] In the exposition of Bahai teachings at Clifton, England, he declared: "His Highness, Baha Ullah, established certain precepts or principles."[315] "The sixth principle of Baha Ullah regards the equality of the sexes. God has created the man and the woman equal. In the animal kingdom the male and the female enjoy suffrage [laughter]; in the vegetable kingdom the plants all enjoy equal suffrage [laughter and applause]. The male and the female of the human kingdom are equal before God. Divine justice demands that men and women have equal rights." My first thought on reading these statements was one of surprise, for they contradict my observations during thirty years' residence in Persia, in close touch with Bahais. I decided to make a thorough investigation of the teachings and practice of Baha Ullah bearing on the relation of the sexes, to determine definitely whether these claims of the "inspired interpreter" were valid or not. A considerable body of Bahai literature and "revelation" is accessible. Examination of the chief books, the "Kitab-ul-Akdas," the "Ikan" and the "Surat-ul-Haykal" disclose no such teaching. Neither the 155 paragraphs of the "Hidden Words," nor the "Seven Valleys" have any such delectable thoughts for Oriental women. Neither the six "Ornaments"[316] of the faith nor the four "Rays,"[317] nor the nine "Effulgences,"[318] nor the eleven "Leaves of the Words of Paradise," nor the nine precepts of the "Tablet of the World," nor the fifteen "Glad Tidings"--though they announce many blessings, from freedom to cut the beard as you please to constitutional monarchy as the best form of government--give the teaching of the equality of woman with man. Neither Mirza Abul Fazl in his "Bahai Proofs," representing the new Bahais of Abdul Baha, nor Doctor Kheiralla in his ponderous volume on Beha Ullah, representing the old Behais, in this bitter and rancorous schism; nor Myron Phelps in his "Life of Abbas Effendi," nor Professor Browne of Cambridge University in his learned and impartial investigations regarding the religion makes the statement that Baha Ullah teaches the equality of man and woman. On the contrary, investigation confirmed my previous conviction that the position of woman under Bahai laws and customs is inferior to that she holds in Western lands and that her lot is far less desirable and less blest than in Christian civilization. I reached the conclusion that this doctrine as enunciated by the "Interpreter" is a late addition to Bahaism,