Bahá’í News/Issue 608/Text

←Previous

Bahá’í News Issue 608

Next→

Proofread onceReturn to PDF view

[Page -1]

Bahá’í News

November 1981

Bahá’í Year 138

The children of Iran

[Page 0]

---

RUTHLESS PERSECUTION DEFENCELESS COMMUNITY BAHÁ’ÍS IRAN FURTHER INTENSIFIED THROUGH RECENT EXECUTION BY FIRING SQUADS OF SIX STAUNCH MARTYRS, ONE IN TEHERAN HABIBU’LLAH AZIZI, FIVE IN DARUN NEAR ISFAHAN, BAHMAN ATIFI, IZZAT ATIFI, ATA’U’LLAH ROUHANI, AHMAD RIDVANI, AND GUSHTASB THABIT RASIKH. LAST FIVE WERE IMPRISONED FOLLOWING LARGE-SCALE SIMULTANEOUS ATTACKS ON BAHÁ’ÍS IN THEIR HOMES AND ARREST OF SEVERAL OF THEM IN VILLAGES NEAR ISFAHAN. FAMILIES MARTYRS WERE NOT INFORMED OF EXECUTIONS WHILE RELATIVES THOSE EXECUTED IN DARUN ALSO NOT PERMITTED CONDUCT BAHÁ’Í FUNERALS THEIR LOVED ONES, AND LAST THREE NAMED WERE BURIED UNCEREMONIOUSLY IN MUSLIM CEMETERY. NO ANNOUNCEMENT BY AUTHORITIES WAS MADE ABOUT EXECUTION LAST FIVE.

UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
SEPTEMBER 18, 1981

---

Bahá’í News

Bahá’ís raise $1.8 million to rebuild the Louhelen School in Michigan	1
In Iran, Bahá’í children face persecution and harassment bravely	2
The Parliament of Europe again condemns the persecutions in Iran	4
From India, a report on construction of the Mother Temple in Bahapur	6
The National Assembly of South and West Africa has its silver jubilee	8
Around the world: news from Bahá’í communities all over the globe	11

Bahá’í News is published monthly by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States as a news organ reporting current activities of the Bahá’í world community. Manuscripts submitted should be typewritten and double spaced throughout; any footnotes should appear at the end. The contributor should keep a carbon copy. Send materials to the Periodicals Office, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, U.S.A. Changes of address should be reported to the Office of Membership and Records, Bahá’í National Center. Please attach mailing label. Subscription rates: one year, U.S. $8; two years, U.S. $15. Second class postage paid at Wilmette, IL 60091. Copyright © 1981, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. World rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

[Page 1]

United States

Historic Louhelen School to be restored

About 400 Bahá’ís gathered Sunday, September 6, at the Louhelen Bahá’í School near Davison, Michigan, for a ground-breaking ceremony that marked the successful completion of a $1.8-million fund-raising campaign to restore the school.

Glenford E. Mitchell, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, using a ribbon-bedecked, chrome-plated shovel, turned the first spadeful of earth that signaled the end of the fund-raising effort and the start of construction at the Louhelen School.

The ceremony came only one month after the 50th anniversary celebration at the school, which was opened in August 1931 by Lou and Helen Eggleston, Bahá’ís in Davison who had a dream that one day it would become a great center of Bahá’í learning.

Their estimate of its eventual importance was underscored in more than 50 letters from the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, in which he said the school would “grow in the future to be a seat of Bahá’í education.”

Year-long campaign

The original Louhelen campus was closed in 1974 because the buildings that had served their purpose so well for more than 40 years were no longer considered safe for occupancy, and funds were not available at that time for restoration or reconstruction.

The ground-breaking ceremony capped a year of intensive effort by the Bahá’ís in the U.S. to make the school a reality.

In the course of that year, architectural plans were prepared, construction permits were obtained, and the site was made ready, awaiting funding.

As late as August 1, when the 50th anniversary observance was held, some $600,000 still was needed to reach the threshold amount of $1.25 million necessary to begin construction at the end of that month.

Glenford E. Mitchell, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, uses a ribbon-bedecked, chrome-plated shovel to turn the first earth marking the completion of the $1.8-million fund-raising effort and the start of construction at the Louhelen Bahá’í School near Davison, Michigan. Standing next to Mr. Mitchell is Auxiliary Board member Stephen Ader.

Those funds were received during August in the form of three large contributions and loans that together totaled $600,000.

In addition, said David E. Smith, secretary of the U.S. National Education Committee, smaller contributions and loans totaling another $500,000 also were received, indicating a broad base of support by individuals and communities.

The sale of promissory notes, together with other loans for the school, amounted to 60 percent of the $1.8 million raised by September.

Construction work at the Louhelen School was scheduled to begin at the end of September and to be completed by the end of summer 1982.

Last spring, the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly established the Faizi Endowment to honor and continue the work of the Hand of the Cause of God ‘Abu’l-Qasim Faizí in the field of Bahá’í education. The first use of that Endowment will be to assist in the reconstruction and development of the Louhelen School.

Over the years, classes at Louhelen have been conducted by many distinguished teachers including eight who later would be named Hands of the Cause of God: Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum, Agnes Alexander, Dorothy Baker, Amelia Collins, Louis Gregory, Horace Holley, Leroy Ioas, and Corinne True.

The construction in 1939 of the school’s library building was made possible through gifts from Mrs. Collins and others.

The Egglestons legally transferred the school buildings to a trust of the National Spiritual Assembly, retaining only their home and nine and one-half acres of land at the school site. The transfer had been their intention from the time the farm property was purchased in 1930.

The school itself, first named the Louhelen Ranch, was later renamed “Central States Bahá’í School.” The name Louhelen was reinstated in 1940, but was changed in 1956 to “Davison Bahá’í School” before the name coined by its founders was eventually readopted.

[Page 2]

Iran

Bahá’í children: courageous, steadfast

The following is a translation of extracts from a letter of June 10, 1981, to the Universal House of Justice from a Bahá’í in Iran detailing the courageous acts of the Bahá’í children in that country.

•

Dear Friends,

We are extremely busy these days and it pains me to think of not being able to write to you. We have so many overwhelming stories to relate, which are so glorious that one feels guilty about not being able to write them.

One of the greatest and most important features of the present persecutions is the tests which are facing the Bahá’í children. So much is written and told about the outstanding perseverance and degree of devotion of the adult believers, but little is said about our dear children—their encounters with difficulties, their courage, and their heroic deeds.

It is unbelievable that human beings could ever think of pressuring innocent children of such tender age in the way the people in the schools of Iran are doing at this time. Thousands of Bahá’í children are facing such inhuman afflictions. Most of them are very studious, are more knowledgeable than other children of their age, and have special insight. Many people, including their teachers, look at them with awe.

The enemies of the Cause do not deny that the Bahá’í children are generally much more advanced than their classmates, but they are not pleased with this fact. Sometimes it even happens that when government authorities complain about the activities of the Bahá’ís, they cite as examples the actions of our little ones and how they confront their Muslim teachers and fellow pupils.

What do these children do that makes them deserve these pressures? Most Bahá’í children know their Islamic religious lessons better than all their fellow students. They can read the Qur’án and interpret it better than their Muslim counterparts, sometimes even better than their teachers!

The highest marks in Islamic religious study are given to the Bahá’í children. Their teachers are often very surprised to note that they excel in competitions in the reading of the Qur’án and in religious instruction examinations. Yes, they are frequently surprised, but at the same time they are extremely resentful.

When the teachers become angry, they challenge the Bahá’í students unfairly. The parents of these children ask their instructors how they have the audacity to confront children of 10 or 11 years, and their reply is that the Bahá’í children sometimes know more than they do. They complain that in their classes the Bahá’í children are occasionally made prayer leaders and are nicknamed by their fellow students as “Ayatollahs” because their understanding of the Qur’án is deep and their beautiful explanations of its verses overshadow those of the teachers.

The ‘right path’

This is exactly the problem! Bahá’í children with such intelligence, understanding and knowledge are not favored by the ideologists of the Ministry of Education. According to them, such children should be “guided to the right path.”

It is certain that this Ministry has adopted a detailed and menacing plan to brainwash the Bahá’í children. We have so much evidence of such a plan!

It is surprising to note that the authorities of the present regime are spending so much time, energy and money to prepare themselves on ways to confront our young children. It is not uncommon for two or three instructors of religious classes or trained ideologists of the Ministry of Education, as well as a number of students, to join forces and suddenly attack a Bahá’í child of 10 or 11 years. With all their power they try to shatter the very foundation of his beliefs. They will argue with him for hours, and even use unfair methods to “guide” him.

They are bewildered when they realize, however, that all their efforts are in vain, and they are wonder-struck at the replies they receive from these young ones, which include a number of verses from the Qur’án and quotations from the Bahá’í Writings.

Sometimes such discussions, between, say, a teacher in his 30s and his Bahá’í pupil of 10 or 11 years of age, takes place in the classroom. The teacher begins with a barrage of insults and calumnies against the Faith. The child, of course, does not passively accept these insults—he reacts! And, his protests are the beginning of a public discussion about the Faith between him and his teacher.

Impressive responses are given by the Bahá’í child, which often makes the teacher speechless. This delights the other children, who applaud and sometimes cry “Hurrah!” for the student who has overcome the mighty instructor. The teacher then becomes angrier and he leaves the classroom and consults with other teachers, who come to his rescue. They call for the Bahá’í child at an hour when he has other classes, such as gymnastics or mathematics, to discuss the Faith. Here are three of them attacking one young child! They argue and argue. What a fair encounter!

The Bahá’í children in Iran have a full share of the persecutions befalling the Bahá’ís in that country. Even the

[Page 3] performances of tots in the kindergarten—their courage, their chanting of prayers by heart, their singing of Bahá’í songs, and their good behavior—make some of the teachers angry, and others, while irate, are filled with awe and admiration.

We pray that these children will always be able to withstand this unjust pressure. We have hundreds of examples to relate, but here are just a few.

1. Sámí is five years old. He is preparing himself in the kindergarten to be admitted into Grade 1 next year. He knows by heart six prayers, the short Obligatory Prayer, and a number of extracts from the Bahá’í Writings. He is intelligent, well-behaved, and quick to learn, and he recites what he has learned very eloquently.

An inspector was sent to his school by the Ministry of Education, and the teacher, in order to boast how successful he had been in teaching the children in his class, called Sámí to recite the verses he had learned. Sámí’s performance astonished the inspector.

At the end, the teacher instructed Sámí to recite a poem which began with the sentence, “I am a Muslim child.” Sámí gazed silently at his teacher without uttering a word. The teacher repeated his instruction, but Sámí remained silent. The teacher was very surprised and became uneasy in front of the inspector. He could not understand why Sámí, who had always excelled in learning and reciting poetry, now remained silent, and so he asked the reason. Sámí replied, “Because I am not a Muslim, I am a Bahá’í!”

The inspector left the room in anger and complained to the headmaster, who called Sámí’s mother to the school. She was warned that Sámí should be instructed not to teach the Faith at the school.

The mother did not know what had happened, but when she found out she naturally told Sámí that he should be more careful and not behave the way he did. But little Sámí, who had learned in the Bahá’í community what it meant to be steadfast, could not accept this and replied, “I am a Bahá’í and will always tell people that I am, and if they bother me I will go to the nearest police station and complain!”

2. Iláhi is eight years old, and is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Iḥsánu’lláh Mihdízádih. Her father was one of the three recent martyrs in Shíráz. She is the only one of Iḥsán’s children who was allowed to meet with her father on the day before his execution.

The day after the funeral of her beloved father, Iláhi took to her school flowers and sweets to distribute to the teacher and her classmates. The teacher was surprised and asked if it is a Bahá’í custom to do such a thing when one’s father is killed? The little girl replied, “My father was not killed, he was martyred!”

---

‘Whatever I have written,’ said Akram, ‘is the exact truth. My father was killed because he was a Bahá’í!’

---

3. Akram, the 11-year-old daughter of ‘Alí Muṭahharí, one of the seven martyrs of Yazd, is another example of such heroism. After her father and the six others were martyred, she went to school and the teacher asked the students in her class to write an essay about their experiences during the summer vacation. Akram wrote a sweet and factual essay about what had happened to her family during the summer—how the Revolutionary guards and others came to their house and took her beloved father away, how they kept him in prison for some time, how she met him in prison, and finally about his martyrdom.

Her essay was so moving that it brought tears to the eyes of the teacher and the children in her class. However, since the word “Bahá’í” was written in the essay, the teacher, even though moved, was angry. She took the essay to the headmistress, and a few days later the headmistress called Akram to her room. She said, “Your essay deserves to receive the highest mark, but since you mentioned the word ‘Bahá’í’ a few times, you should withdraw it.” Akram replied, “I was supposed to write about my experiences during the summer. Whatever I have written is the exact truth. My father was killed because he was a Bahá’í!”

The headmistress threatened Akram with dismissal because of what she had said, but told her that because her mother had lost a husband, she would be permitted to remain in school. Eventually, the headmistress demanded that Akram write an essay on some other subject, which she did, and she was given an excellent grade.

4. Ármán, 11 years old, is another hero of the Faith. Three prejudiced and cruel teachers, one of whom was violent, argued with him and threatened and abused him because of his being a Bahá’í. When they felt they had punished him adequately in this fashion, they took him to a room, gave him a booklet which was written against the Faith, and compelled him to write repeatedly from this booklet certain sentences which attacked the Faith in offensive language. This punishment became so great that Ármán developed severe headaches, which the doctors said were caused by nervous pressure.

5. Ru’yá has just become 15 years old and is in the first year of secondary school. Her school is not in a remote village where prejudiced and uneducated people might be expected to live. It is in one of the prosperous localities north of Teheran and is supposedly more civilized.

When this school had been opened for a few years, an instructor of religion entered a classroom of new students, and first asked, “Is there anyone in this class who does not belong to the true religion?” Nobody replied. The instructor then said, “What I meant was, is there a Bahá’í in the class?”

Ru’yá stood up and announced that she was a Bahá’í. The teacher then said in abusing and insulting language, “Let it be known to all of you that Ru’yá is defiled and untouchable and none of you are to have any contact with her.” She demanded that Ru’yá sit in the back of the room at a desk by herself, and those who were sitting at that particular desk were given another place. The instructor stated that this arrangement was to be observed until the end of the year and that nobody was allowed to sit next to her.

I have asked some of these children to write about their experiences and the types of discussions they have had with their teachers and fellow students. A beautiful compilation has been made, and although it has been composed by these children in simple language, it demonstrates the depth of their understanding of the Faith and their profound love for Bahá’u’lláh.

[Page 4]

Bahá’í International Community

Persecution in Iran again condemned

The following article was prepared for Bahá’í News by the Bahá’í International Community at United Nations headquarters in New York City.

•

Obedience to the tenets of their Faith means that the Bahá’ís in Iran cannot seek relief from their persecution by allying themselves with any political party or anti-government movement or by defending themselves by violent means. Deprived of any constitutional protection, they must rely solely on appeals to their government.

Since Bahá’ís are bound by their Faith to show loyalty and obedience to their government, the Bahá’ís were at first reluctant to embarrass the government of Iran by taking any form of public international action. Initially, then, direct appeals were made to the Iranian government, first by the Bahá’ís in Iran and later by Bahá’í communities throughout the world.

When it became apparent that all appeals were going unheeded, and that the persecution was intensifying, the Bahá’ís outside Iran finally took their appeals to international bodies.

First, the Bahá’í International Community appealed to the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities which, in a resolution of September 10, 1980, expressed its profound concern for the safety of the members of the Bahá’í community in Iran and invited the government of Iran to protect the fundamental human rights and freedoms of this religious minority.

On September 19, 1980, following appeals to its members by the Bahá’í communities of Europe, the European Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran and calling upon the government to grant recognition to the Bahá’í community.

Also as a result of appeals by European Bahá’ís, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe published a written Declaration on the plight of the Bahá’ís in Iran, calling upon the Committee of Ministers of the 21 Member States of the Council of Europe to make urgent representations to the Iranian authorities to put an end to the persecution.

Following the resolution by the European Parliament, the Foreign Ministers of several member governments of the European Communities informed the Bahá’ís of their own countries that the nine Member States of the European Communities shared the concern of the European parliamentarians for the plight of the Iranian Bahá’ís.

Since, however, efforts to improve the treatment of the Bahá’ís in Iran had met with no positive results, the Foreign Ministers of the nine States recommended that the Bahá’í International Community take the matter to the human rights organs of the United Nations, where the support of the nine governments was assured.

Acting on this recommendation, the Bahá’í International Community made two statements to the 37th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which met in Geneva, Switzerland, from February 2 to March 13, 1981.

A unanimous resolution

In its first statement, the Bahá’í International Community drew the attention of the Commission to the kidnaping of three prominent Bahá’ís and to the arrest and subsequent disappearance of the nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iran and two appointed officers of the Bahá’í Faith.

In its second statement, the Bahá’í International Community had the opportunity of describing the persecution in Iran and of emphasizing the deliberate omission of the Bahá’ís from the Constitution of that country and the systematic nature of the persecution.

Many delegates from among the 100 or so governments represented at the Commission were extremely sympathetic to the Bahá’í case, and four governments—the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom—made specific reference to the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran in general statements on the violation of human rights.

Concerned that there had been no response from the government of Iran either to the appeals of the Bahá’ís or of international bodies and governments, and increasingly anxious to stem the tide of persecution against their co-religionists, the Bahá’ís of Europe again appealed to the European Parliament which, on April 10, 1981, adopted a second unanimous resolution on the Bahá’í case, calling on the Foreign Ministers of the 10 Member States of the European Communities to make the necessary representations to the Iranian government.

In a statement to the European Parliament on May 6, 1981, the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, then chairman of the Council of Ministers of the European Communities, stated that the situation of the Bahá’í community in Iran had been discussed on various occasions and would continue to receive the full attention of the 10 Member States. (Greece had joined the Nine on January 1, 1981.)

At the spring 1981 session of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), held in New

[Page 5] York City in April and May, the 10 Member States of the European Communities drew attention to the plight of the Bahá’ís in Iran in a statement dealing with religious intolerance. The delegation from Canada also referred to the Bahá’ís comments on the same subject.

At the time of publication of this report, a motion has been placed before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe which, if adopted, would call upon the Committee of Ministers to bring the persecution of the Iranian Bahá’ís to the attention of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The motion was to be debated at the meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg, France, in September.

The appeals made and information supplied by Bahá’ís throughout the world to the governments, parliamentarians, prominent officials and media in their own countries concerning the rapidly-worsening plight of their co-religionists in Iran have resulted in an ever-growing international awareness of the situation.

The parliaments of Australia, Canada and the Federal Republic of Germany have passed resolutions deploring the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran, and the matter has been debated in other national parliaments.

Political leaders of many parties and religious leaders of many denominations and faiths have publicly denounced the persecutions and have expressed to the Bahá’ís in their countries their sympathy and full support for their fellow-believers in Iran.

The Bahá’í delegation to the meeting of the European Parliament held April 6-10 in Strasbourg, France, included (left to right) Udo Schaefer, Mahshid Fatio, Giovanni Ballerio and Eric Fienieg. On April 10, the Parliament passed a second resolution condemning the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran.

---

Friday, 10 April 1981

RESOLUTION
on the persecution of the Bahá’í community in Iran

The European Parliament,

• recalling its resolution of 19 September 1980 on the persecution of members of the Bahá’í community in Iran*,
• alarmed at the escalation of violence and the campaign of persecution directed at the Bahá’í community, which is the largest religious minority in Iran,
• pointing out that this section of the population has no legal protection,
• aware of the fact that two members of this community were executed on 15 March 1981 merely on account of their activities within that community,
• condemning the purely arbitrary arrest and detention of individuals,
• concerned at the disappearance of nine members of the Bahá’í national administrative council in Iran,

1. Condemns the violation of the human rights of all religious minorities in Iran, in particular the rights of the Bahá’í minority, which is not recognized as such by the Iranian constitution;
2. Strongly urges the Iranian Government to grant the Bahá’í community the recognition and protection of rights already granted to the Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian minorities;
3. Calls on the Foreign Ministers meeting in political cooperation to make the necessary representations to the Iranian Government as soon as possible to secure the release of members of the Bahá’í community currently in detention merely on account of their religious beliefs and to prevent any persecution of and discrimination against the Bahá’í minority in Iran;
4. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Foreign Ministers meeting in political cooperation and to the Iranian Government.

* OJ No C 265, 13.10 1980, p. 101.

---

[Page 6]

India

The ‘Lotus of Bahapur’ takes shape

The following extracts from an account of construction work on the Mother Temple of the Indian Subcontinent were prepared in April 1981 by the architect, Faríburz Ṣahbá.

•

Bahapur, a deserted, rock-strewn hillside, pock-marked on its western corner by seven concentric rings of deep pits gouged out of the earth, is the site for the House of Worship, which the contractors take charge of on 21 April 1980. Within a fortnight the first of the men and equipment arrives and a fortnight later work starts ...

The arrival of more labor and machines signals the completion of “site mobilization” by the end of June, and the first cement, sand, and aggregate arrive at site in preparation for construction. Foundation pits of different sizes and different depths, excavated to reach hard rock, are “trimmed and dressed” ...

The peace and quiet of Bahapur are gone. The air is filled with the staccato sounds of pneumatic drills biting into the hard rocks, the muffled bangs of dynamite blasting, the metallic sounds of hammer and chisel on rock, the shouts of contractors directing their labor gangs, the shrill voices of women workers calling out to their children

[Page 7] scurrying around the site. The scene that meets the eyes is one of hectic activity, as hefty crowbar-wielding men in the pits loosen and break away huge boulders into small ones that can be lifted out; still others pile the broken boulders into baskets that are carried out of the pits on the heads of women laborers, or handed up to ground level by men sitting one above another on the rungs of an improvised step-ladder.

Drilling of a tube-well—the only source of water for construction, and for later gardening—is begun ... On 30 July, after prayers, the first concrete is poured ... one after another the pits receive anti-termite treatment followed by filler concrete ... The monsoon rains play hide-and-seek with the concreting crew which works between showers.

Shortage of materials and inflation are specters that haunt us all the while. Procurement of quality cement in adequate quantities is a constant problem ... Shortages have been aggravated by the sudden rush of construction activity ... for the 1982 Asian Games.

Lack of water becomes a cause of great concern ... Drilling continues slowly, painfully, by one contractor with an old rig ... A high-speed drilling rig is located and brought to the site from a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers ... Now two wells are operational and a third one is to be commissioned. There is sufficient water for construction.

Electricity is in short supply generally throughout India ... It is especially difficult to get large high-tension loads such as the 320 kilowatts needed to operate the tower crane, the largest in the country ... A transformer for this heavy load has been purchased, and will later be installed in the permanent works.

A new excitement

With the arrival of steel bars at site in early September it is not long before the reinforced footings of the columns are cast ... A new excitement fills the air at Bahapur as four gangs of workers, mainly women, vie with one another to lap up the concrete churned out by four mixers. These labor gangs are from different parts of India and they work to the rhythm of different songs which they sing to maintain a tempo. It is the colorful, sari-clad women who carry head-loads of concrete weighing approximately 25 kilos (55 pounds), and who walk gracefully back and forth the 75-meter (82-yard) distance between mixer and pit. They keep up their endless sing-song, and work tirelessly until each footing is completed.

One footing requires 72 cubic meters of concrete and swallows up approximately 900 bags of cement and six and one-half metric tons of steel. Each woman carries, in one day, about 290 head-loads of concrete, having a total weight of more than seven metric tons. In a day each woman walks more than 21 kilometers (nearly 13 miles). And they do this cheerfully, knowing they are constructing a “mandir.” Also, they do not have to worry about their children, for whom a creche and a primary school are provided at the site.

Soon the yawning foundation pits disappear; in their place regular concrete stubs rise. Completion of the footing leads to concreting of the basement floor, and then casting of the columns ... A great deal of work has gone into designing the shuttering and formwork for them. More than a dozen “mock-ups” are made using different kinds of shuttering to give “jointless” concrete ...

Experiments are carried out with a variety of concrete mix-designs, additives, release agents, etc., until the best combination, under the circumstances, is arrived at. It is difficult to fulfill the specifications under controlled conditions and infinitely more so at the site with unskilled labor.

Concreting of the columns begins in mid-January. Twenty-six columns of the podium supports and twenty-three other columns and abutments are concreted. Work is in progress on the podium slab, scheduled to be completed in three months’ time ...

The real task lies ahead—that of constructing the superstructure with the intertwining of structural details of the leaves and arches and inner dome. The contractors are using specialists of Madras University and their computer facility to derive structural statistics which would otherwise take months to calculate ... An actual mock-up of a typical junction of an archway, entrance leaf and outer leaf has been made, taking engineers and carpenters 400 man-days to complete. Sixty cubic meters of timber and 400 square meters of shuttering plywood have gone into it ... Work on the Ancillary Building goes on simultaneously ...

The raising of the House of Worship in the Indian Subcontinent has already created a stir among Bahá’ís and non-Bahá’ís alike. Though no publicity has been sought for the Temple, the process of its construction has attracted the attention of officials ... and of those involved in construction and related work. The number of such persons alone who have heard of the Faith, have made inquiries, and are studying the Cause runs into hundreds.

Inspiring stories

Upon the Bahá’ís the effect has been deep and, in many cases, spectacular. The construction of the Mother Temple has generated a wave of enthusiasm and excitement whose ripples have energized the country over which they have passed. This is reflected in the sacrificial outpouring not only to the Temple Fund but also to the National Fund, which has risen during the last year by more than 75 percent.

Inspiring stories are heard of the sacrifices of rich and poor alike: the pioneer who donated the entire amount of his first salary at his new post; the bride who donated her modest dower of silver; the five-year-old girl who put aside 10 paise (pennies) a day for the Temple; the 12-year-old school boy who, unknown to his parents, saved every paisa of his pocket money over a period of eight months and accumulated 200 rupees for the Temple; the group of Bahá’ís who walked to a conference from a railway station four kilometers (two and one-half miles) distant and gave the money thus saved to the Temple Fund. Such examples are innumerable.

Contributions have been pouring in from around the world. A very touching contribution came from a Bahá’í family of Hawaii in tribute to a gentleman of Hyderabad who had donated all his life’s savings toward the purchase of the Temple land, during the Guardian’s lifetime. The Hawaiian family has expressed the desire to pay the air fare of that gentleman from Hyderabad, to enable him to be present at the inauguration of the Temple.

[Page 8]

South and West Africa

National Assembly marks silver jubilee

Riḍván 1981 marked the 25th anniversary of the formation of the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of South and West Africa.

The first known record of the Faith in South Africa occurred 70 years before the Silver Jubilee. In 1911, Bahá’í meetings were held on the 19th day of each month at the home of Mrs. Agnes Cook on Protea Avenue in Sea Point.

In 1912, Mr. and Mrs. William Fraetas, two Capetonians, visited the United States where they heard of the Faith from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in New York City. They later returned to Capetown where they lived on Byrns Avenue.

The first pioneer to South Africa, Fanny Knobloch, came from the U.S. and found the Fraetas family on her second visit in 1924.

She described Mr. Fraetas as a brilliant soul and both of them as “a power for good in the Cape.”

From her notes we read:

“ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told him (Mr. Fraetas) that only the surface of South Africa’s wealth in minerals and precious stones had been touched, but that when people would turn to agriculture and live in unity and harmony, treating the natives justly, South Africa would lead the world in prosperity. He also said that South Africa was the land for youth.”

The story of Fanny Knobloch’s pioneering efforts can be read in the booklet, “The Bahá’í Faith in Africa: The Early Days.” She came to South Africa first in 1920, again after an illness in 1924, and a third time in 1928.

In the Western Cape, Miss Knobloch lived in the Auletta Hotel in Three Anchor Bay, and helped establish Bahá’í Groups in Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Caledon, as well as in Johannesburg, Pretoria and other parts.

She was greatly helped by her sister, Pauline, and by visits in 1924 and 1925 by Miss Martha Root.

Andrew Mofokeng, the first secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa when it was formed in 1956, reviews the history of the growth of the Faith in southern Africa during the 25th National Convention last April.

After Miss Knobloch’s health declined and she returned to the U.S. in 1929, the Faith died out in the Cape as well as in the rest of Southern Africa. Even the first Spiritual Assembly, which was formed in Pretoria in 1925, disappeared in 1931.

In 1936, Miss Knobloch wrote to the Guardian suggesting that more pioneers should go to South Africa. His reply was favorable, but only one traveling teacher came: Mrs. Loulie Matthews from the U.S., accompanied by Ophelia Crum, in 1937. After that, there were no more visitors or pioneers to South Africa until 1953.

When the first pioneers arrived there that year, they found only two local Bahá’ís—Mrs. Agnes Carey, who had moved from Pretoria to Durban, and Reginald Turvey, a South African who had become a Bahá’í in England and returned to South Africa in 1939.

The first pioneers

Mrs. Carey was in a nursing home in Durban; Mr. Turvey was a painter living in Johannesburg. Later, the Guardian was to name Mrs. Carey and Mr. Turvey the mother and father of the Bahá’ís of South Africa.

The first pioneers to arrive in South Africa at the beginning of the Ten Year Crusade were the Sears family—William, Marguerite, and their sons, Mike and Billy. Coming from the U.S. on July 18, 1953, they settled on a farm in Muldersrift and invited Mr. Turvey to live with them.

By the end of that year there were 24 more pioneers in the region, only six of whom are still living in South Africa: Bahíyyih Winckler, Lowell Johnson, Karen Miller von der Riet, Michael Sears, Marguerite Sears, and the Hand of the Cause of God William Sears.

By the end of 1954 there were 53 pioneers in southern Africa; by the end of 1955 there were 61, and by the end of the Ten Year Crusade some 90 pioneers from the U.S., Canada, England and Iran had come to southern Africa, taught the Faith, and many had left.

In fact, by the end of the Ten Year Crusade in 1963, the number of pioneers remaining in Southern Africa was 45, exactly half of those who had come there in that 10-year period.

During that time 17 local people had pioneered outside their own countries including four from South Africa: Petal and Joe Arnott who went to

[Page 9] Nyasaland (Malawi), Joseph Mbata to Zululand (which was considered to be a separate country in those days), and Andrew Mofokeng to Basutoland (Lesotho).

There is no record of the number of new believers in southern Africa during the years 1953-55. It is known that the first African in that area to become a Bahá’í was Andries Khorombi who declared his faith in Bahá’u’lláh in Johannesburg on September 3, 1954, and that the second was William Masehla, in November 1954.

The first indigenous woman in southern Africa to become a Bahá’í was Dorothy Senne, who was enrolled on January 21, 1955, the same day as her husband, Ephens Senne, making them the first Tswana Bahá’ís in Africa.

Of course, nearly every tribe and race had its first Bahá’ís, mostly in 1955—Max and May Seepe being the first Coloureds, Meriane Sandile the first Xhosa, Gladys and Charlotte Ndlovu the first Zulus, and Sarah Mamabolo the first Pedi. Later came Creswell Sisilana (the first Fingo), the Bismillah family (the first Indians), the Gallow family (the first Malays), and Florence Norman and Norman Bailey (the first whites).

By April 1955 there were 15 Local Spiritual Assemblies, the first one having been established in Johannesburg (all whites) in 1954. The dramatic increase in the number of Assemblies in one year encouraged the Guardian to call for the formation of the first National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa.

By April 1956 there were Local Spiritual Assemblies in these places: Angola (1), Basutoland (5), Bechuanaland (1), Mauritius (3), Madagascar (1), Mozambique (1), Northern Rhodesia (1), Southern Rhodesia (2), Réunion (1), Swaziland (1) and South Africa (9).

The Guardian allocated 19 delegates to the first National Convention, which was held on the Sears’ farm under strict security arrangements.

On April 22, 1956, the first National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa was elected. Its members were John Allen, Festus Chembeni, Walter Dlamini, William Masehla, Robert Miller, Andrew Mofokeng, John Robarts, William Sears and Max Seepe. In January 1957 Walter Dlamini resigned and Marguerite Sears was elected to replace him.

By that time there were 496 African and Coloured Bahá’ís, and 71 whites, but only 326 declaration cards in the files. (Many of the early declaration cards were sent to the U.S. Africa Committee.)

From that time the Faith grew at the rate of about 300 believers per year until 1963 when the number suddenly increased from 2,302 to 7,145. The num-

[Page 10] ber of Local Spiritual Assemblies increased from 26 in 1956 to 86 in 1963.

The year 1963, of course, marked the end of the Ten Year Crusade, and celebrations were held worldwide. The members of the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa went to Haifa for the first election of the Universal House of Justice, and many of the friends went to the first Bahá’í World Congress at Royal Albert Hall in London.

The following year saw the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa become the mother of two new National Assemblies, those of the Indian Ocean and South Central Africa.

It was also a year of many adjustments. Bechuanaland, Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland had been lost to South Central Africa, and Mauritius, Réunion and Madagascar to the Indian Ocean. That left only Angola, Basutoland, St. Helena, South West Africa, South Africa and Swaziland under the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa. The membership was reduced from 7,145 to 3,585, and the number of Local Spiritual Assemblies from 86 to 36.

The Universal House of Justice then announced the Nine Year Plan, and the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa was called upon to become the mother to another new National Spiritual Assembly—the National Spiritual Assembly of Swaziland, Mozambique and Basutoland. And so in 1967, the membership was further reduced to 2,568 and the number of Local Assemblies to 23.

‘Children,’ ‘grandchildren’

While it seemed on the surface that things were going backward, in reality the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa had had the privilege of spawning both children and grandchildren, as there are now National Spiritual Assemblies in most of the countries and islands of southern Africa.

For instance, the National Spiritual Assembly of South Central Africa, which originally included Malawi, Rhodesia, Zambia and Botswana, gave birth in 1967 to the National Spiritual Assembly of Zambia, and in 1970 to the National Spiritual Assemblies of Botswana, Malawi and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).

Meanwhile, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Indian Ocean, which originally included Mauritius, the Chagos Archipelago, Madagascar, the Malagasy Republic, Seychelles, Comoros and Réunion gave birth in 1969 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Seychelles and in 1972 to the National Spiritual Assemblies of Réunion, Madagascar and Mauritius.

The National Spiritual Assembly of Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique, formed in 1967, has gradually evolved into the National Spiritual Assembly of Lesotho (1971), the National Spiritual Assembly of Swaziland and Mozambique (1971), the National Spiritual Assembly of Swaziland, Mozambique and Angola (1976), and the National Spiritual Assembly of Swaziland (1977), with Angola and Mozambique coming under the direct guidance of the Universal House of Justice since 1977.

From 1967 to 1980, the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa administered South Africa, South West Africa/Namibia, and St. Helena Island, as well as the newly created countries of Transkei, Bophuthatswana and Venda.

The year 1980 saw the birth of the National Spiritual Assembly of Transkei, while 1981 witnessed the birth of the twin National Spiritual Assemblies of Bophuthatswana and South West Africa/Namibia.

By 1981, its 25th anniversary, the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa had given birth to six “children,” three of which have evolved into 10 living “grandchildren,” making a total of 14 National Spiritual Assemblies now ministering to the needs of the Faith in southern Africa.

The tree of the Faith now has many branches. The latest message from the Universal House of Justice calls upon all of these National Spiritual Assemblies to sink their roots deep into the soil of southern Africa, so that the believers and institutions will stand firm and strong, able to withstand the many storms that are brewing in Africa and the rest of the world.

The Hand of the Cause of God William Sears (center) addresses delegates and guests at the 25th Bahá’í National Convention in Johannesburg, South Africa, last Riḍván. Mr. Sears, who was the first chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa in 1956, opened this year’s convention. With him on the platform are Lowell Johnson (left), the present chairman of the National Assembly, and its secretary, Michael Walker

As the beloved Guardian said in a message written to the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa: “Africa is truly awakening and finding herself ... To the degree to which her peoples accept Bahá’u’lláh will they be blessed, strengthened and protected.”

[Page 11]

The world

United Kingdom protests persecution

More than 200 people including members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from different political parties have passed a motion protesting the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran.

Speakers at a meeting July 8 in the House of Commons included five members of Parliament, a senator from Australia, the director of the United Nations Association, and a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United Kingdom.

The motion that was adopted states in part: “This meeting ... wishes to place on record its horror at the relentless persecution in Iran of members of the Bahá’í Faith and calls on humanitarian governments the world over to use their best endeavours to bring pressure to bear on the Government of Iran to see reason and to cease the appalling harassment of and attempts to humiliate members of the Bahá’í Faith, and to enable them to enjoy those civil rights enshrined in the International Convention on Human Rights.”

Among those who protested the treatment of Bahá’ís in Iran by addressing comments to United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim was Anthony Kenny, the master of Balliol College, Oxford, where the beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, was once a student.

“... I feel particularly distressed,” wrote Mr. Kenny, “at the news of their persecution as leaders of the Faith have had connections with this College since the last century.”

The heads of 13 other colleges at Oxford University signed a statement directed to Mr. Waldheim that expresses their horror at the persecution of believers and other minorities in Iran.

The statement notes that “the scale and severity of persecution have greatly increased in recent weeks,” and urges that “international public opinion do all it can to persuade the Government of Iran to cease the persecution of these law-abiding people, who are in no way involved in political matters.”

A 15-minute report on the persecution of Bahá’í in Iran was presented July 7 as a part of the BBC-TV’s “Newsnight” program. The report detailed the circumstances of the martyrdom of Dr. Manuchihr Hakim in Tehran and other Bahá’í martyrs including interviews with their relatives.

The sympathetic television report also included scenes of the Shrines at the World Centre and of Bahá’í meetings in London.

Korea

Shown are Bahá’ís and their guests at the national Bahá’í Summer School in Pusan, Korea, July 30-August 3. Much of the planning for the school was carried out by Bahá’í youth from Pusan.

More than 100 Bahá’ís from several localities in Korea attended a national Bahá’í Summer School held July 30-August 3 in Pusan.

Among those present were five members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Korea and three Auxiliary Board members.

Classes and workshops were held on “the Bahá’í community,” “the Nineteen Day Feast,” “the Local Spiritual Assembly,” and “the meaning and effects of persecution.”

Separate children’s classes focused on prayer and stories about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. One morning, about 12 children from a nearby orphanage participated in the Bahá’í children’s class.

Bahá’í youth from Pusan, working with the National Teaching Committee and individual believers, played a large role in planning and organizing the Summer School, which was sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of Pusan.

The Faith was introduced to a large group of students at a nearby university who had been invited to learn about the Faith by one of the Pusan Bahá’í youth.

Following the Summer School, five youth undertook a teaching trip to several villages.

[Page 12]

Zimbabwe

Shown are delegates and guests at the 12th Bahá’í National Convention in Zimbabwe.

Guyana

More than 60 artists attended an artists’ workshop April 25-26 in Georgetown, Guyana, that was organized by five Bahá’ís who are artists and sponsored by the National Spiritual Assembly of Guyana.

Workshop sessions included presentations on “Unity and Diversity in Art” as related to Bahá’í principles; “Creativity in Everyday Life,” and “The Artist as a Spiritual Being,” presented by a Bahá’í who is a psychologist.

Another Bahá’í speaker discussed “The Vision of the Future,” while a panel discussed “The Artist and Society.”

The well-known Bahá’í artist, David Villaseñor, was introduced through the showing of the film, “Sands of Time,” that features his work with Indian sand paintings.

Also offered were sessions on “The Preparation and Discipline of the Arts,” “Art and the Art Teacher,” “Art as a Profession,” and Toshoban (Japanese print-making with waxed paper stencils).

The workshop was described in the magazine section of a Georgetown newspaper under the headline, “Artists’ Workshop a Success.”

Tonga

More than 50 Bahá’í youth from various communities in Tonga attended a national youth conference June 14 in Navutoka village.

This first youth conference in three years marked the start of a monthly deepening program organized by the National Youth Committee of Tonga.

The eight half-hour classes offered during the one-day youth conference were taught by youth. The gathering ended with an evening fireside that was attended by 30 non-Bahá’í youth.

An average of 20 Tongan Bahá’í youth travel each Friday to a village chosen by the National Youth Committee as a goal.

With their guitars and song books, the youth conduct firesides that attract an average of 10 to 15 seekers. These weekly trips are made in a van that was purchased with money raised by the youth.

Small groups of Bahá’í youth also organize weekend teaching trips to the outlying villages.

Chad

Shown are delegates and guests at the Bahá’í National Convention in Chad, held last April 30 in Moissala, in the southern part of the country. Among those who attended were two Auxiliary Board members.

[Page 13]

Australia

John Huddleston, a Bahá’í from the United States who is author of the book, The Earth Is But One Country; Auxiliary Board member David Hassall from Australia, and their wives made Bahá’í presentations to four university officials in the Sydney, Australia, area in July.

The Huddlestons were in Sydney for five days during a visit to the Pacific area to meet leaders of thought and those in authority, as requested by the Universal House of Justice.

Mr. Huddleston, who is budget director of the International Monetary Fund, spoke for three hours with Sir Herman Black, chancellor of Sydney University. He presented the chancellor with a copy of his book and an information kit on the present crisis facing Bahá’ís in Iran.

Mr. Huddleston and his three companions made similar presentations to the vice-chancellor of the University of New South Wales, to a former vice-chancellor of that same university, and to the vice-chancellor of Macquarie University.

Mr. Huddleston’s book has been selected as an “outstanding academic book” by Choice magazine, a periodical published in the U.S. that reviews and recommends works for academic libraries.

Tuvalu

Eight members of the newly elected National Spiritual Assembly of Tuvalu (formerly Ellice Islands) gathered for this photo at its inaugural Convention held April 26 on Funafuti Island. Present for the occasion were the Hand of the Cause of God Collis Featherstone (back row fourth from left), Continental Counsellor Suhayl ‘Alá’í (seated far right), Auxiliary Board member Dr. Tilinga Pulusi (seated second from right) and Jack Pedro, a representative of the parent National Spiritual Assembly of Kiribati.

Réunion

An accurate, well-illustrated five-page article on the Faith appeared in the June 24 issue of Télé Sept Jours, a popular weekly magazine in Réunion, a French-speaking island in the Indian Ocean.

The article is entitled “650 Réunion Islanders in Search of Universality.”

The appearance of this issue of the magazine was promoted with radio spot announcements broadcast every two hours during a two-day period. The announcements began with the words: “This week, discover the Bahá’í religion ...”

The magazine and radio publicity resulted from an interview with the publication’s editorial staff obtained by the National Spiritual Assembly of Réunion.

“As expected,” said a spokesman for the National Assembly, “the events in Iran give us extraordinary proclamation opportunities. If only our brethren in Iran could be informed of them, no doubt they would be comforted!”

New Zealand

Grant Miller, a Bahá’í from Auckland, New Zealand, who is a musician, composed a song entitled “We’re All Looking for Love” that was used as the theme song for an “International Year of the Disabled” telethon in that country.

The successful recording of the song was noted in a New Zealand newspaper article that described the composition as “in keeping with Miller’s Bahá’í sentiments, which centre around positive thinking.”

Switzerland

Sixty-eight Bahá’ís including Continental Counsellors for Europe Dr. Agnes Ghazvani and Dr. Leo Niederreiter attended a teaching conference June 11 in Grindelwald, Switzerland.

The conference was organized around three themes: youth, our responsibilities in the Seven Year Plan, and the significance of the Plan in Europe.

Among the proposals developed during the conference were the fostering of greater unity and coordination among the linguistic regions of Switzerland, and the need for each believer to deepen friendships with “inactive” believers.

Vanuatu

Three people declared their belief in Bahá’u’lláh during the first of a series of six weekly Bahá’í institutes July 25-26 in Tanna, Vanuatu, that was attended by about 25 Bahá’ís and their guests.

The institute included a public talk on progressive revelation, a song session, and the translation of a part of a teaching book into the Lenakel language.

[Page 14]

Jamaica

The Hand of the Cause of God Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum appeared on nationwide television, conducted a press conference, met with the prime minister and governor-general, and spoke at a public meeting during a visit May 20-26 to Jamaica.

Among those present at a reception in her honor May 21 were the United Nations’ resident representative in Jamaica, the president of the country’s Court of Appeals, and the Israeli consul to Jamaica.

Ruth Pringle, a Continental Counsellor for the Americas, and Auxiliary Board member Anthony Lewis joined the Hand of the Cause for a luncheon May 22 at the National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds that was hosted by the National Spiritual Assembly of Jamaica.

She was the subject of an informative 20-minute interview that was broadcast twice on national television.

One hundred Bahá’ís from more than 15 localities in Jamaica joined visitors from the Cayman Islands, Panama, Dominica, Canada, the United Kingdom and United States at a conference May 24 whose speakers included Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum; Counsellor Pringle; Auxiliary Board member Lewis; Elias Zohoori, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of Jamaica; and Violette Nakhjaváni, Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum’s traveling companion.

The Hand of the Cause was warmly received May 26 by the Hon. Edward Seaga, prime minister of Jamaica. They talked for about 20 minutes about the Faith and the recent persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran.

At the close of her visit, she unveiled a plaque at the National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds commemorating her historic trip to Jamaica.

Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum (fourth from right) and members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Jamaica gathered for this photo shortly before the departure of the Hand of the Cause of God at the end of her week-long visit to Jamaica in May. Counsellor Ruth Pringle is fifth from left.

The Hand of the Cause of God Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum (left), her traveling companion, Violette Nakhjavání, and the Hon. Sir Florizel Glasspole, governor-general of Jamaica, share a laugh during a courtesy call made May 21 by Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum during her week-long visit to Jamaica.

Shown are many of the more than 110 believers who attended a conference May 23-24 in Kingston, Jamaica, during the visit to that country of the Hand of the Cause of God Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum.

[Page 15]

The Gambia

The Faith was proclaimed in schools, at the national library, and on radio in The Gambia during a two-week visit in April by Ada Williams, a traveling teacher from the United Kingdom.

Miss Williams contacted prominent women in government, reporting later a “spiritually charged conversation” with the highest-ranking woman in the country’s government and the most prominent woman in its civil service.

In addition, she was the guest at a tea attended by the UN Development Program’s resident representative and other prominent women in The Gambia.

On two occasions, Miss Williams was interviewed on Radio Gambia. The National Spiritual Assembly plans to follow up her proclamation effort with local-language programs for Radio Gambia.

Miss Williams visited nine schools. At each one the headmaster was told about the Faith and given books for the school library.

At a Muslim secondary school, 200 students listened to an hour-long question-and-answer session on the Faith along with 15 staff members and two teachers of the Qur’án.

A Catholic girls’ class in religion also heard an hour-long discussion of the Faith.

The visitor from the United Kingdom presented Bahá’í books to the chief librarian at the national library. Two weeks later, a Bahá’í exhibit was placed on display at the library.

Trinidad/Tobago

Shown are some of the participants in the fourth annual Bahá’í School of Trinidad and Tobago held January 9-11 at John Dial Village, Tobago. Those present included Auxiliary Board member Stephen Burris (far left in back row).

Mexico

Carmen de Burafato, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors for the Americas, and six members of the Auxiliary Board in Mexico conducted a training institute June 13-14 in Puebla for 15 assistants to the Auxiliary Board and other invited guests.

The institute focused on the responsibilities of assistants and their importance in helping Spiritual Assemblies win the goals of the second phase of the Seven Year Plan.

Counsellor Burafato emphasized the importance of the individual Bahá’í during her presentation on the Administrative Order.

The two-day gathering included several opportunities for group consultation.

El Salvador

Violence, danger and social upheaval have served only to increase the momentum of teaching and consolidating the Faith in El Salvador.

The National Spiritual Assembly of El Salvador, helped by two Auxiliary Board members, set up a plan to win the Local Assembly goals of the first phase of the Seven Year Plan. One seven-member team that went out every day to teach formed 10 new Assemblies in six weeks and helped several others that were in jeopardy.

The goal of 110 Assemblies was won. All were re-elected except 17 that were in the war zone.

The National Spiritual Assembly has decided to maintain a team of 10 volunteers to go out every day this year on a regular schedule of teaching and consolidation.

Several Bahá’ís have lost their lives in the fighting in El Salvador, mostly accidentally, and all in situations unrelated to the Faith.

____________

Two hundred sixty-two Bahá’ís including several new believers participated in a day-long teaching conference July 19 in San Salvador, El Salvador.

The conference, sponsored by the National Spiritual Assembly of El Salvador, included reports of a four-week teaching effort in the western part of the country that resulted in declarations by 95 adults, youth and children.

Conference participants learned that considerable progress is being made toward winning El Salvador’s goal of enrolling 500 new believers during the second phase of the Seven Year Plan.

Between Riḍván and the time of the conference, 145 people in El Salvador declared their belief in Bahá’u’lláh.

[Page 16]

United States

Shown here are some of the 125 participants in a ‘Youth for One World’ conference held April 25 in Redlands, California. The organization, sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of Redlands, is designed for children ages 5 to 15. It seeks to instill a sense of Bahá’í identity and values in young people through monthly meetings and individualized home and community activities. The Spiritual Assembly of Redlands has received inquiries about ‘Youth for One World’ from many states and from as far away as Finland.

Brazil

Members of three more Indian tribes in Brazil have declared their belief in Bahá’u’lláh.

Two of those who recently became Bahá’ís are members of the Cariris Chocó tribe of Porto Real de Colegio in Alagoas.

Two others are Funiós from Aguas Belas in Pernambuco, while one is a Potiguarra Indian from the Bay of Traição in Paraíba.

____________

One hundred-fifty Bahá’ís from all parts of Brazil attended a national Bahá’í conference July 4-6 in Rio de Janeiro to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Faith in Brazil by the late Continental Counsellor, Leonora Armstrong.

A congratulatory message from the state legislature of Rio de Janeiro was recorded in the government’s official journal.

Counsellor Armstrong, then Leonora Holsapple, arrived in Brazil in 1920 in response to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets of the Divine Plan. A plaque honoring her memory will be placed in the principal square of the harbor area in Praça Mauá, Brazil.

The national conference, dedicated to the Bahá’í martyrs in Iran, launched the second group of “Bahá’í projects” of consolidation and expansion.

Many of those who were present offered their help in the teaching work to help win the goals of the present phase of the Seven Year Plan.

Argentina

Some of the 50 Bahá’í and non-Bahá’í children who regularly attend Bahá’í children’s classes in Quilmes, Argentina, gathered for this group photo with their teacher, Lida Yazdani (right), and two members of the Spiritual Assembly of Quilmes. This suburb of Buenos Aires is the burial place of May Maxwell, the mother of the Hand of the Cause of God Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum. Mrs. Maxwell died March 1, 1940, while on a teaching trip to South America.

Pakistan

Dr. Sabir Afaghi, an Auxiliary Board member, proclaimed the Faith with Bahá’í literature that was given to participants at a government-sponsored seminar in Pakistan on problems of book publication and sales in that country’s national and regional languages.

Dr. Afaghi was invited to the seminar as a delegate to represent the Kashmiri language. He presented Bahá’í literature in Pushtu, Punjabi, Baluchi and Sindhi to directors of the academies of these regional groups.

More Bahá’í literature was requested by delegates at the conference who are prominent in their fields. A number of them from various parts of the country indicated that they would present the Bahá’í books to their boards.

Other delegates also were given Bahá’í publications.

[Page 17]

Bahá’í News

Bahá’í News is eager to receive reports and photographs of newsworthy Bahá’í activities held throughout the world. Subscribers find these reports in the “World” section of Bahá’í News and in feature articles appearing in each issue.

Unfortunately, some reports and photos can’t be used because important and necessary information has been unwittingly omitted by the correspondent.

More than likely, this occurs because the correspondent, describing an event with which he or she is familiar, simply has forgotten to include the information. When one is a participant in or a witness to an event, it is sometimes easy to forget to include such basic information as where or when it took place. But whenever such information is left out, the report usually cannot be published.

Please continue to send news of Bahá’í activities in your area to Bahá’í News and include photos (black and white preferred) whenever possible. But before sending a report, please take a moment to review it and make sure that answers to the following questions are included: What, when, who, where, and why?

That is, what was the event or activity; when did it happen; where did it take place; who sponsored it and who participated (be sure to include first and last names); and why, meaning what was the purpose of the event? By keeping this old journalistic rule in mind when writing, you can help assure that your report will be published in Bahá’í News.

Please send articles and photos to Bahá’í News, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, U.S.A.

SW Africa/Namibia

The National Spiritual Assembly of South West Africa/Namibia, one of the newest National Assemblies in Africa, has begun publishing a newsletter that features a rainbow of colored pages, each one printed in a different language.

The newsletter is published in Afrikaans, English, Herero, Kuanjama and Nama languages, reflecting the diversity that characterizes the members of the National Assembly itself.

Six national/linguistic backgrounds are represented in the membership of the National Spiritual Assembly of South West Africa/Namibia. Included are three Ndonga members, one Kuanjama, one Damara, two Germans, one American and one Persian.

Costa Rica

Twenty-five residents of Turrialba, Costa Rica, a small town named for a nearby volcano, expressed their desire to study the Faith as the result of a proclamation effort conducted by members of the local Bahá’í community on four consecutive Sundays.

Many of the members of the Bahá’í community of Turrialba gathered in a central park with a hinged display board decorated: with photos and diagrams of Bahá’í subjects. They spoke with passersby and handed out Bahá’í pamphlets.

This same Bahá’í community financed the production of a radio program, “The Open Door,” that was developed by the National Bahá’í Radio Committee of Costa Rica.

The Netherlands

Thirty-five Bahá’í youth and children from six localities in Holland are attending monthly classes on the Faith in eastern Holland. The young people, ages four to 18, are divided into five age groups.

The education program is linked to the Netherlands’ summer and winter school sessions.

---

To all National Spiritual Assemblies
Dear Bahá’í Friends,

Further to the cable of the Universal House of Justice of April 6, 1981, quoted in our subsequent circular letter of April 8, 1981, about the opening of two Funds in the Holy Land for the Houses of Worship in India and Samoa, we have been instructed to say that, while the friends are free to send their contributions to the World Centre if they wish, the Universal House of Justice has been notified by Mr. Faríburz Ṣahbí, the architect for the Temple project in India, that it would be helpful for funds contributed for the House of Worship in that country to be sent directly there rather than to be collected in and dispatched from the World Centre.

Donations for the Temple project in India may therefore be sent to:

Bahá’í Temple Project

Savings Bank a/c No. 592

Syndicate Bank, Foreign Exchange Branch

Connaught Circus

New Delhi 110001

India

All contributions sent through your National Spiritual Assembly or directly by individuals in your country to India will be acknowledged by the Temple Project Committee, which will provide to the World Centre a periodic account of contributors and amounts received.

In the case of the Samoan Temple, it is preferable for contributions to be sent to the World Centre.

With loving Bahá’í greetings,

The Universal House of Justice
Department of the Secretariat

---

[Page 18] Kitán-i-Íqán, The: The Book of Certitude
New Cloth and Paper Editions!
Sets forth the grand redemptive scheme of God, revealing the
oneness of religion and its continuity and evolution through the
successive prophet of God.

Cloth. Calalog no. 103-008-10.   $14.00
Paper. Catalog no. 103-028-10.   $7.00 (not pictured)

Bahá’í Publishing Trust
523 Green Bay Road/Wilmette, IL 60091