Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 440
! ! 440 making this mistake in the future. If this mistake was made in the past, then it should be avoided in the future. Hunger and thirst are equally felt by those sitting on the stage as those seated on the floor. If the women seated on the floor can control their hunger and thirst, despite being squeezed for space and exposed to direct sunlight, then why cannot the women seated on stage do so ? However, t he unwell are exempt from this rule. One or two women might be ill , but to assume that all [ of these women] are ill is incorrect. Only a certain few are unwell here. In this case, if a woman [who is served tea] has heart t rouble, then instead of complaining [about her] she should be shown mercy. Anyhow, the current stage arrangements on the women’s side are faulty. My advice is to improve the organization of the stage. No one is given a seat on the men’s stage because of their wealth or a high status. The only people seated are either the presidents or secretaries of various Jama'ats. They are expected to go back and relate a summary of these proceedings to their Jama'ats. Other exce ptions are non - Ahmadi guests, those who are unwell , or those who are hard of hearing. I believe that the ladies should have a similar system. The p residents or secretaries of various departments and national officeholders, who oversaw the arrangements, should be given the opportunity to sit on the stage. Non - Ahmadi guests , who took pains to be here, those who are disabled and those unable to sit on the floor for long periods of time , should be allowed to sit on the stage. Similar ly, benches should be placed near the back of the Jalsa site for the unwell and disabled. I hope that Lajna will make a note of this and will implement this instruction for next year. Only the Lajna presidents, the secretaries, the unwel l , the non - Ahmadi guests , or organizers should be allowed to sit on the stage. Those who do not meet these criteria should sit on the floor in the future. (At the time, a Jalsa site officer sent a note to Haz rat Khalifa t - ul - Masih II ra s tating that both yesterday and today, no food or tea was served to the ladies sitting on the stage. ) Haz rat Khalifa t - ul - Masih II ra mentioned that it was good to