I have had one of those strange (but entirely banal) epiphanies that come to one during the boring parts of meetings.

Sitting in Committee Room 4 of the House of Lords last Thursday during a meeting of the Attorney General’s Equality and Diversity Group, I tuned out of the meeting and looked down at the point where the hem of my suit jacket lay over the legs of my suit trousers.

Only it wasn’t a suit.

The jacket has a single chalk stripe, I noticed, whereas the trousers have a double-chalk stripe. And the cloth is slightly different.

In October I was in Messrs Shepherd and Woodward, the excellent and slightly old-fashioned gents outfitters on the High in Oxford to buy a suit. I found one that I really liked - dark merino with a chalk stripe. I tried on a jacket. It fitted. I tried on the trousers, and they were, well, just a tad on the small side. The chap who was serving me looked around and found another pair of trousers, slightly larger. They fitted beautifully and the whole suit looked and felt a treat.

I wore the suit several times in Haifa in January. Nobody noticed anything odd. I’ve worn it in London since my return. No one noticed anything out of the ordinary. Not until I looked down at my legs during the Attorney General’s meeting did I realize that the shop assistant must have picked pair of trousers from another design of suit. I had bought a suit that isn’t actually a suit.

I had to point this out to Erica when I got home. She hadn’t noticed either.

So why am I so bothered about this? I’m annoyed that I could have been so unobservant in the shop! But if no one else has noticed, why should I worry? I shall continue to wear the “suit” with pride, and if anyone comments I shall claim that the suit was designed like that and that there’s another one exactly like it somewhere in England.

What do you think? Is this a suit? Or not?

Technorati Tags: suit, clothing

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Last Thursday, attending a meeting of the Attorney General’s Equality and Advisory Group (three cheers to Baroness Scotland for continuing her predecessor’s initiative) we sat in a high-ceilinged committee room in the House of Lords. Massive paintings of the coronations of King George V and King George VI adorned the two end walls of the room, while a tall portrait of King William IV in naval uniform looked down on us - women and men, black and white, straight and gay, advising the UK’s first black woman Attorney General (some of the Victorian judiciary must be turning in their graves). Under the minatory gaze of these various monarchs, we discussed the Crown Prosecution Service’s draft policy on prosecuting crimes of violence against women.

Gratifyingly for the CPS, the representatives of the civil society organizations at the meeting were full of praise for this draft policy. It was visionary, they said, and it was well written. Oh yes, there were some suggestions for amendments and for things that had been omitted to be considered for inclusion. But it must be rare for a policy to achieve such unanimity of approval.

Equality of women and men is a fundamental Baha’i principle and the Baha’i International Community’s Office for the Advancement of Women has chosen ending violence against women as one of its focal areas.

Shamefully it is only relatively recently that violence against women, particularly in the home, has been considered a matter for public policy, but now that it is on the agenda, at least the CPS has made a good fist of a draft policy about prosecution of those who commit crimes of violence against women.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Attorney General, Patricia Scotland, equality, women, violence against women

This story on the MEMRI Iran Media Blog claims that Iran’s President Ahmadinejad considers the universal rule of the Hidden Imam humanity’s most important need.

As a Baha’i, I think he’s right.

This article on the Baha’i Topics website will tell you why. Stick with the article, which is quite long, if you want to really understand something important about the historical context of the Baha’i Faith and its relationship to Shi’i Islam.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Ahmadinejad, Iran, Islam, Shia, Shi’i, Hidden Imam