Is this the first feminist religion? An exploration of the similarities between the principles of the Baha'i faith and the ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft and Luce Irigaray through the analysis of concepts of justice and subjectivity

This project addresses the problem of the mutual prejudice between religion and feminism. I show, using Christianity as an example, how feminists have considered religion to be oppressive due to distortions of the intention of the divine message by institutionalization and canonization. I demonstrate why the principle of gender equality is fundamental to the Baha'i Faith, and I submit that this principle is in danger of being dismissed or underestimated. I compare the principles described in the nineteenth-century scriptures of the Baha'i Faith and the feminist concepts contained in the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft and Luce Irigaray. I use this comparison to argue for the need of an exchange of ideas between the co-emerging discourses of feminism and the Baha'i Faith, particularly as they converge in the field of ethics on the topics of justice and subjectivity.