Bahá’í World/Volume 20/Iqani Koirala Masheed
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MASHEED TQANI KOIRAiA
(Mashid Iqani Koirala) 1949—1986
The following telegram was sent by the beloved UniversaI House of Justice on 27 October 1986:
THE Bahá’í WORLD
GRIEVED NEWS UNTIMELY PASSING DEAR HANDMAIDEN BAHA’U’LLAH MASHID KOIRALA. HER EXEMPLARY PIONEERING SPIRIT, STEADFASTNESS DEVOTION AND LOVING NATURE ALL INSTRUMENTAL WINNING MANY HEARTS ACHIEVING VICTORIES NEPAL UNFORGETTABLE. EXTEND HEARTFELT SYMPATHY HER NOBLE FAMILY F RIENDS NEPAL, ADVISE HOLD NIEMORIAL GATHERINGS. WE ARDENTLY PRAY SACRED THRESHOLD PROGRESS HER SOUL ABHA KINGDOM.
Mahflid Tqani was born in Tihran on 17 April 1949. Her urge to travel and teach the Faith was noticed from an early age. While she was still in school in Tran she used to persistently ask her parents to send her pioneering. The beloved Hand of the Cause of God ‘Ali-Akbar Furfitan often recalled how she used to cry and ask him to tell her parents to a11ow her to pioneer.
Soon after she completed high school she left Train to study in the Philippines. She was the first Persian Bahá’í student in the Philippines and when the others joined her she used to be called “the number one”. She studied mass communication from 1967 until the summer of 1971, when Violence in the campuses led to the closure of the university. She went home, planning to go back to the Philippines to complete her study, but while in Iran she heard about a course in mass communication in New Delhi, India.
She was particularly enthusiastic about going to India because of the possibility of Visiting Villages and teaching the Faith. She often spoke of her many Visits to Filipino Villages where she taught under the guidance of the beloved Hand of the Cause of God Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir. During later Visits to Nepal, Dr. Muhájir himself told Nepalese friends how Mahshid had travelled to remote
4 Filipino Villages and taught the Faith.
In September 1971, she joined the postgraduate diploma course in journalism in New Delhi where she met Bharat Koirala. They became engaged at a ceremony at the Bahá’í House in Delhi in the presence of the
IN MEMORIAM
beloved Hand of the Cause Abu’l-Qásim F aydi. In April 1972 they were married, again at the Bahá’í House, in the presence of the beloved Hand of the Cause Mr. Furl'ltan. Three days later they flew to Nepal in the company of Mr. Furfitan, who was travelling to Nepal to the first National Convention.
For the next 14 years Mahshid was destined to play an important role in the growth of the Faith in Nepal. She loved to travel to the Villages where Bahá’ís resided. With her ever—present smile and unflinching faith in the power of Baha’u’llah, she was welcome everywhere. When in Kathmandu she often suffered from bronchial asthma, but when she Visited Bahá’ís in Villages, all traces of her physical suffering disappeared. She missed mass teaching as it was experienced in the Philippines or India, but she adjusted to new realities in Nepal and never stopped teaching, whether in small groups or large gatherings.
From the beginning, Mahflid served as the Auxiliary Board member for Nepal and preferred to do so whenever she was elected to the Assemblies. She said it gave her the opportunity to “plan independently and quickly”. It was only at the 1986 National Convention that she opted to serve on the Assembly, and she was subsequently elected secretary.
The end came on 24 October 1986, after a hectic day at the school where, in addition to her job as principal, she substituted for two absent teachers. She came home With some relatives she had met on the way, served tea for them, drove them home herself and then asked her mother and two children to get ready to go to the Bahá’í Centre for the Friday fireside. At the National Centre the day’s speaker had not come and so they asked her to speak. She said, “Today, I’vwill talk about Baha’u’llah and my son Samir will translate into Nepali for me”.
She finished her talk, described by friends and seekers as most eloquent and inspiring, and while Samir was still translating, she left the room. A few minutes later her daughter
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Masheed Iqani Koirala
Shabnam found her on the balcony outside panting desperately for breath. She was rushed to the hospital, but it was already too late.
Hundreds of friends, relatives and prominent Nepalese came to pay their respects as her body lay at the Bahá’í Centre. Many non-Bahá’í friends attended the burial at the Bahá’í cemetery.
BHARAT KOIRALA