Internationalisme religieux et activisme éducatif: les femmes du Bureau international bahá'í, à Genève et ailleurs

This article explores the entanglement of Bahá’í belief, internationalism and educational activism in the pursuit of peace. It focuses on the activities of a number of women who were associated with the Geneva Bahá’í’ Bureau from its establishment in 1925 to its closure in 1957. It situates Bahá’í belief within religious internationalisms and outlines the Bahá’í approach to the creation of universal peace and a world society. It highlights the importance Bahá’ís attributed to education if individuals and society were to be transformed in the pursuit of peace. It discusses the Bahá’í view that the League of Nations was a progressive but insufficient mechanism to bring about world peace. It uses pen portraits of women associated with the Bahá’í International Bureau at Geneva to relate the mobility associated with their internationalism and educational activism to Bahá’í beliefs about the earth as one land. It ends by arguing that a comparative and transnational focus on relations between religious internationalisms and education would prove a fruitful approach for future historical studies of educational internationalism