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Bahá’í News

August 1982

Bahá’í Year 139

Bahá’ís talk ...

... Congress listens

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Bahá’í News

In the U.S., a House Subcommittee hears Bahá’í testimony on Iran	1
Counsellor Leonora Armstrong is warmly remembered by her niece	6
Around the world: News from Bahá’í communities all over the world	10

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 © 1982, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. World rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

[Page 1]

House Subcommittee hears testimony about persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran

On May 25, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations heard two and one-half hours of testimony from Bahá’ís as it began its consideration in Washington, D.C., of specific examples of religious persecution as a violation of human rights.

Presenting comprehensive statements and evidence concerning the persecution of their co-religionists in Iran were three members of the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly—Judge James F. Nelson, chairman; Dr. Firuz Kazemzadeh, vice-chairman; and Glenford E. Mitchell, secretary.

Judge Nelson addressed his remarks at the historic meeting to the recent wave of persecutions and martyrdoms suffered by the beleaguered Bahá’í community in Iran; Dr. Kazemzadeh, who is professor of history and chairman of the Committee on Middle Eastern Studies at Yale University, discussed the history of the Faith in Iran and the genesis of those persecutions; and Mr. Mitchell outlined the response of the American Bahá’í community to the ordeal of its brethren in the Cradle of the Faith.

Moving testimony

Further sobering insight into the repression and violence directed toward Iran’s long-suffering Bahá’í community, the largest religious minority in that country, was offered in moving testimony by Mrs. Ramna Mahmoudi Nourani, an Iranian Bahá’í who is now living in Pennsylvania.

Mrs. Nourani’s mother, Ginous Mahmoudi, who was chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran, was one of eight members of that body who were abducted during a meeting last December 13 and secretly executed two weeks later.

Her father, Houshang Mahmoudi, was a member of the previous National Spiritual Assembly of Iran whose members disappeared in August 1980 and are presumed dead.

Also making strong statements at the hearing in support of the Bahá’ís were two members of Congress, Reps. Edward Derwinski of Illinois and Fortney

U.S. Reps. Fortney ‘Pete’ Stark of California (above) and Edward J. Derwinski of Illinois (below) offer testimony on behalf of the Bahá’ís of Iran before the House Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations at its meeting May 25 in Washington, D.C.

[Page 2] “Pete” Stark of California.

The open session, conducted at the Rayburn House Office Building, was presided over by the Subcommittee chairman, Rep. Don Bonker of Washington state.

“Since the inception of the Bahá’í Faith,” Rep. Bonker said in his opening remarks, “(the Bahá’ís) have lived in a climate of constant repression characterized by frequent outbreaks of violence and bloodshed ...

“Now once again in post-revolutionary Iran, differences in religious ideology are being used by fanatical elements to justify violent attacks on the Bahá’í community.”

Rep. Derwinski, the first person to speak at the Subcommittee hearing, described the repression of Bahá’í in Iran as “one of the great tragedies of our times.”

The congressman from Illinois said he had written to Kurt Waldheim, then secretary-general of the United Nations, asking for his help in alleviating the suffering of Iranian Bahá’ís, and addressed the House of Representatives on July 24, 1981, “denouncing the cruelty and excesses of the Iranian regime and calling for particular attention to the continued persecution of the Bahá’ís.”

Rep. Stark, who last March introduced a resolution in the House deploring and condemning the religious persecution of Bahá’ís by the government of Iran, and also introduced a bill to prohibit imports from Iran until it ends the persecution of Bahá’ís, said, “It is quite sad and ironic that a people who for over one hundred years have striven to bring about the unity of mankind, world peace, and world order, should be the target of flagrant violations of human rights.”

Rep. Stark included in his formal testimony excerpts from the book A Cry from the Heart by the Hand of the Cause of God William Sears.

Judge James F. Nelson presents testimony to the House Subcommittee.

The horrors that are being inflicted daily upon the defenseless Bahá’í community in Iran, Judge Nelson told the Subcommittee, “stagger the imagination” and “constitute without any doubt a gross violation of all fundamental human rights.”

After cataloging many of the atrocities committed against innocent members of the Faith in Iran and setting

House Subcommittee member Henry Hyde of Illinois asks a question during Bahá’í testimony May 25 about the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran.

forth the reasons given by the present regime there for the persecutions, Judge Nelson carefully refuted each of the allegations, calling them “a sham” and “a smokescreen for religious fanaticism.”

“Time and again,” he said, “the persecutors have confirmed by their own acts that their charges are groundless.”

Many Bahá’ís in Iran, he continued, have been offered their lives and freedom in exchange for recanting their faith.

The Bahá’ís in the U.S., said Judge Nelson, “feel no animosity toward the government of Iran. We feel genuine sympathy for the long-suffering Iranian people and wish for them a peaceful and happy future.

“However, we cannot remain indifferent to the sufferings of our Iranian brothers and sisters at the hands of bigots, who have no compunction about shedding innocent blood. We call upon our fellow citizens and our elected representatives to proclaim that America will not acquiesce in oppression and that its perpetrators will have to answer for their deeds in the court of world opinion.”

Judge Nelson’s testimony was amplified by several graphic and compelling exhibits including photos of Bahá’í martyrs on whose mutilated bodies were scrawled epithets such as “enemy of Islam.”

Also displayed was a map showing the locations of instances of persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran since the Revolution in 1978; a listing of the more than 110 Bahá’ís executed there in the last three years; and written orders authorizing the dismissal of Bahá’ís from jobs and schools.

Dr. Kazemzadeh placed these recent events in historical perspective and explained the underlying reasons’for the intense hatred of Bahá’ís by the fundamentalists among Iran’s Shiite clergy.

Principally, he said, the Báb’s teachings were “a direct challenge to the Islamic fundamentalists,” since the Shiite clergy held that Muḥammad was the “Seal of the Prophets” and that with Him divine revelation had come to an end. The Báb, said Dr. Kazemzadeh, not only claimed that He was the “hidden Imam” whose return the Shiite clergy

[Page 3] was awaiting, but also that He was a new Prophet and the Herald of a still greater divine Messenger who would come “to fulfill millenial prophecies and bring about righteousness on earth.”

Shaken by the Báb’s stupendous claim, the clergy set about to undermine the foundations of the new faith. Thousands of its adherents were killed, and in 1850 the Báb Himself was martyred.

These attacks on the Bahá’ís in Iran, said Dr. Kazemzadeh, have continued to the present day.

“Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings on the unity of mankind, the equality of races, the equality of sexes, universal education, the harmony of science and religion, the establishment of a world federation and the maintenance of world peace through collective security, His advocacy of a universal auxiliary language, and of other measures designed to bring about a peaceful and inter-dependent world society,” said Dr. Kazemzadeh, “were far too advanced to be understood by His contemporaries. These teachings ignited in the Shiite clergy the same passionate hatred it had earlier felt for the Báb, His teachings and His followers.”

By the late 1930s, he said, “the mullahs had created a whole new arsenal of anti-Bahá’í weapons.

“It was suddenly discovered that the Bahá’ís were unpatriotic ...

“When anti-British sentiments swept Iran after World War II, the Bahá’ís were accused of serving the British ...

“With the spread of anti-Americanism in the last 10 to 15 years, it became fashionable to link the Iranian Bahá’ís to the United States where there exists a relatively large and active Bahá’í community ...

“Clerical propaganda constantly repeated that Mohammad Reza Shah was surrounded by Bahá’ís and was,

‘Clerical hostility’

perhaps, one himself ...

“I have mentioned the various allegations made about the Bahá’ís to show the unprincipled nature of such allegations. They are all only a cover for religious bigotry. Yet they demonstrate the depth of clerical hostility toward the Bahá’ís and the success the mullahs have had in poisoning the minds of many decent and well-meaning Iranians.

Above: Dr. Firuz Kazemzadeh, vice-chairman of the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly, places the persecution of Iranian Bahá’ís in historical perspective. Below: Glenford E. Mitchell, secretary of the National Assembly, points to epithets scrawled on the bodies of Bahá’í martyrs in Iran.

“When the Iranian revolution broke out in 1978, the most radically conservative fundamentalist elements within the Shiite clergy were determined to purge Iran of everything they disliked: modernism, emancipation of women, the rights of minorities, academic freedom, non-conformist thought, opera and the theatre, most forms of music; but their strongest yearning was for the destruction of the Bahá’ís.

“Having achieved power, the old enemies of the Bahá’í Faith could not but use that power to crush a religion and a community for whose eradication they had striven for 138 years.”

Mr. Mitchell, in sketching for the Subcommittee a brief history of the Faith in the U.S., said that “because the United States Bahá’í community is connected historically and spiritually with Iran, we have a grave concern for the fate of our long-suffering Iranian brothers and sisters, who for 138 years have made incalculable sacrifices of comfort and of life itself for the beliefs we hold dear.

“It should be noted,” he added, “that the Iranian Bahá’í community has not requested us to do anything on its behalf. It is in response to the letters, telephone calls and personal ap-

[Page 4] peals of the American Bahá’ís, and in response to its own sense of grief, that the National Assembly has attempted to bring the heartbreaking story of the persecutions to the press and to our government.”

The American Bahá’í community, said Mr. Mitchell, is thankful to individuals, government agencies and international bodies such as the United Nations for their efforts to help relieve the suffering of the hard-pressed Iranian Bahá’ís.

Nevertheless, he said, “a sense of helplessness frustrates our community. Nothing lifts the oppression of the Iranian Bahá’ís. The resolutions of national governments and international organizations go unheeded ...

“We cite these concerns in the hope that the actions of our government and of our fellow citizens will have the following outcome:

“1. Keep the Iranian government and people constantly reminded through frequent public statements that the world is watching what they do to the Bahá’ís and will not tolerate it.

“2. Prevent Islamic Iranian fanatics in this country from curtailing the freedom which American Bahá’ís share with their fellow citizens to meet in peace in the United States.

“3. Assist those Iranian Bahá’ís who seek refuge in the United States.”

The story of the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran, said Mrs. Nourani, “is an intensely personal one for me.

“With the blessings of the Islamic government,” she testified, “I have lost my father and mother to the fanaticism and hatred of the Moslem clergy.

“This story is even more tragic because all the atrocities committed against the Bahá’ís are done with pride, in the name of religion.”

Her father, she said, was an educator and author who for more than 15 years was one of the most revered television personalities in Iran.

“Generations of Iranian children came to love and respect him,” she said. “He was a father figure to them.”

On August 21, 1980, Mr. Mahmoudi, along with the eight other members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran and two prominent Bahá’ís, was handcuffed and blindfolded and taken away at gunpoint by revolutionary guards from a private residence in Tehran.

“We never heard from my father,” said Mrs. Nourani, “and all the appeals made by the Bahá’í community of Iran to the Islamic government produced no result. We can only fear the worst. My only hope is that he was not tortured.”

Mrs. Nourani’s mother, elected chairman of the next National Spiritual Assembly, was arrested December 13, 1981, and executed December 27 with seven other members of that Assembly and one other Bahá’í.

Their desecrated bodies were accidentally found half-buried in the “infidels” section of the Muslim cemetery in Tehran.

No charges were made against them, no trials were held, and no family members were notified of their deaths.

Mrs. Mahmoudi, a well-known scientist, had been the director of the Department of Meteorology in Iran and president of the Iranian School of Meteorology.

“After the revolution,” said Mrs. Nourani, “my mother was fired and taken off the payroll. She was even asked to give back all salary she had received for the past 25 years of her service because, they said, it was illegal for a Bahá’í to be hired by the government.”

Mrs. Nourani also told Subcommittee members of the execution of a cousin, 35-year-old Mrs. Shiva Mahmoudi, with five other members of the Spiritual Assembly of Tehran; of a cousin of her husband, Habib Tahqhiqi, with eight other members of the

The room in which the House Subcommittee hearing on Iran was held May 25 was filled to overflowing as Bahá’ís offered their testimony.

Mrs. Ramna Mahmoudi (above) testifies about the deaths of her father and mother while Subcommittee Chairman Don Bonker (below) listens attentively.

[Page 5] Spiritual Assembly of Tabriz; and of two of their neighbors in Tehran, Mr. and Mrs. Foroohar, after 10 months in prison.

“Our 138-year history,” she said, “is filled with unspeakable cruelties and atrocities against the Bahá’í community.

“But there is a difference. This time, we have a well-planned case of genocide ...”

The Bahá’í testimony, which lasted for more than two hours, was interspersed with and followed by a number of probing questions by Subcommittee members who listened with rapt attention as the Bahá’ís presented their compelling evidence of the extremely harsh and callous treatment meted out to the Bahá’ís in Iran.

In commenting on the hearing, the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly said in its letter to the community for the Feast of Raḥmat:

“It was a thrilling experience to hear Congressmen express their deep concerns for the Bahá’í community and to see them struggle to understand the difficult circumstances faced by our heroic brothers and sisters in Iran. Even more exciting was the degree to which the hearing became a forum for teaching the Faith.

“The event marked a new level of exposure and recognition for our onward marching Cause. It indicated a breakthrough in our efforts to impress upon our government the seriousness of the situation in Iran. The actions leading to this benchmark in American Bahá’í history were greatly aided by the friends as they wrote early this year to Senators and Congressmen. Our gratitude is matched only by our happiness over the remarkable outcome.”

Above: Glenford E. Mitchell tells of the U.S. response to the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran.

A House stenographer records the Bahá’í testimony for inclusion in the Subcommittee and Congressional records.

Left: Another of the Bahá’í exhibits, this one showing an order to dismiss Bahá’ís from their jobs in the Department of Education in Adhirbayjan, Iran.

[Page 6]

A loving portrait of an eventful life spent in service to the Cause of God

Though I am currently writing a book about my great-aunt Leonora’s life, I am always at a loss for words when trying to describe her inner spirit. I have found that the most successful way is to call to mind certain moments that remain embedded forever in my memory.

Remembering her fragile, bent figure poring over stacks of papers, I am reminded of her ever-constant toil of love and selflessness and her unwavering devotion to the motivating Cause of her life.

I remember that as our boat left the harbor at Manaus, Brazil, in 1976, on the way up the Amazon River to Belém, she made a small shadow leaning over the railing in front of a glorious topaz-red sunset. She recounted to me then how she had first arrived in Manaus by boat some 56 years before.

I also recall how, after living near her for more than four months, I began to understand the intricacies of her character, and hit upon the perfect “going away” gift. I bought her a large box of raisins and some apples, for she bought only the barest of necessities for herself such as beans, rice, lentils and eggs. She made her own yogurt, and a Bahá’í friend gave her whole wheat bread regularly. The tender excitement in her eyes as she unwrapped those raisins was so special to me. I could have spent hundreds of dollars on some item for her and it never would have evoked the same response.

•

Leonora Stirling Holsapple Armstrong was born June 23, 1895, into a wealthy family. Deprived of her mother

This brief biographical sketch of Continental Counsellor Leonora Armstrong, the “Spiritual Mother of South America,” who died October 17, 1980, was written for Bahá’í News by her niece, Kristine Leonard Burgess.

at the age of five, she spent a lonely and rather loveless childhood.

It was her maternal grandmother, Leonora G. Stirling, who gave her the spiritual guidance that she longed for and needed.

Leonora Armstrong in a photograph taken around 1930.

“Grandma Stirling,” an English-woman, spent much of her life in a search for spiritual truth and enlightenment. It was not until she was 76 years old that she happened upon the Bahá’í Revelation while in New York City.

She began teaching Leonora when her granddaughter was 11 or 12 years old, giving her several small books to read and teaching her prayers and hymns, which Leonora and her younger sister would sing while their grandmother played the piano.

It was grandmother Stirling’s zeal in “giving the message” to the clergy in their home town of Hudson, New York, and to everyone she met and every friend with whom she corresponded that enkindled in Leonora the same fire to teach everyone, no matter how brief the encounter.

When Leonora was only two years old, her parents had suddenly realized that she was exceptionally gifted. Although she hadn’t yet been taught the alphabet, they overheard her reading the words on a set of blocks, and were so shocked that they took her to the family doctor.

At the age of three she was enrolled in a private kindergarten, and because her mother was a member of the local Board of Education they were able the following year to waive the age requirement for beginning grammar school.

So before her fifth birthday, Leonora had completed the first grade. She remained a top student, graduating from high school at the age of 15 as class valedictorian. Having won a scholarship to Cornell University, she took up Latin and German as well as literature, astronomy, botany, physics and chemistry. She was elected Phi Beta Kappa during her junior year at Cornell, and was graduated at the age of 19 with a B.A. degree and one-half year’s credit toward a master’s degree.

“For five years following graduation,” she said later, “I taught Latin in high schools and did social work, the latter for about two years in Boston, where I had the opportunity to be with a number of Bahá’ís, notably the Obers, near whom I had lived for some time in Cambridge, and May Maxwell, who came often to Boston and also to

[Page 7] New York City where I was sometimes able to be with her.

“More than anyone else, May helped me to feel the great love of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the reality of love that I had longed to feel, and a deep bond was formed between us, which gave me the greatest joy I had known.

“Another privilege, which I would only years later come to fully realize, was my association with May’s little daughter, Mary, who was destined to become Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum, the wife of the Guardian of the Faith and a Hand of the Cause of God. Often when she was a child I would take her for walks when her mother was ill and wished to rest. Each time I returned from Brazil I would see how she was developing and growing more and more like her beloved mother.

“There were others to whom I owed much, such as Roy Wilhelm and the Kinneys, for the inspiration that I received from their great love and spirituality.”

In 1919 Leonora attended the Bahá’í Convention in New York City at which were revealed the Master’s Tablets of the Divine Plan, which she said first gave her the idea of becoming a pioneer.

She immediately wrote to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, telling him of her wish, and received a Tablet in reply dated July 1919. In it the Master expressed the hope that she might become a “spiritual physician,” and this hope of His became her highest aspiration.

Meanwhile, a strange coincidence had given her the opportunity to work with an aunt at the New York State Training School for Girls, the same institution for which her mother and grandmother had worked. After acquiring some practice in that kind of social work she took the Civil Service examination, and having made the highest mark in the state, was named Chief Parole Agent.

Early in 1920, while reading ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablet to Martha Root in which He commended her teaching work in South America and stressed the importance of its being followed up by others, it suddenly seemed to Leonora that South America might be a definite goal for her. She wrote to Miss Root, expressing that idea, and received an immediate reply in which she was given the utmost encouragement and advised to go to Argentina. With that in mind, Leonora began to study Spanish.

Sometime later Miss Root received a letter from three young Theosophists whom she had met in Santos, Brazil, asking that someone come to Santos to teach them more about the Faith. She wrote again to Leonora, saying she thought it would be best for her to go first to Santos.

While she was making her plans, many of Leonora’s friends and relatives began to point out the dangers of venturing into unknown jungles where she knew neither the inhabitants nor the language.

“I felt my resolution weakening,” she later recalled, “when some social work that took me to the northern part of New York state gave me the idea to slip up to Montreal.

“May Maxwell was ill, but on hearing of the situation sat upright in bed, and in ringing tones which still vibrate in my memory, said, ‘Leonora, what are you waiting for? Go!’

“ ‘I will take the next boat,’ I replied. I had enough money saved to pay for a second class passage and to live at a hotel for perhaps three weeks. Roy Wilhelm gave me a letter of credit to use in case of emergency, but I hoped I wouldn’t have to use it. I knew that my father would send me money to come home, but not a penny to enable me to stay.”

So it was that Leonora sailed from New York City on January 15, 1921, aboard the S.S. Vasari bound for Brazil. The people on the ship were quite friendly, and Leonora told everyone about the Faith including a young woman who was returning home to Brazil and who gave Leonora her first lesson in Portuguese.

Upon their arrival in Rio de Janeiro on February 1, the young woman insisted on accompanying Leonora to her hotel and staying there with her. It must be remembered that a young woman of good moral character never traveled alone in those times, not to mention the fact that she didn’t speak Portuguese.

Leonora Armstrong in about 1924 with a group of children from one of her classes in Bahia, Brazil.

Leonora was most grateful for her new friend, and after 12 anxious days of waiting for word from her only contact in Brazil, Sr. Guido Gnocchi, one of the Theosophists who had corresponded with Martha Root, she embarked by boat for Santos.

She was met there by Sr. Gnocchi who helped her find a place to stay, and in the days that followed helped arrange for her to give some English lessons. He introduced her to his friends, and together they began to work to spread the Message in Santos. She and Sr. Gnocchi translated some prayers and passages from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Paris Talks and typed them in Portuguese.

Leonora’s teaching brought in little

[Page 8] money, and the next two years were quite difficult—she said later there were times when she lived only on bananas. But with courage born of her faith in Bahá’u’lláh and the promises of the Master, she went forward unwaveringly.

It was through Sr. Gnocchi that she was able to give her first public talk in Rio de Janeiro. He had heard that there was to be a national Esperanto Congress in Rio, and although Leonora knew very little Esperanto, she wrote to the president of that group in Rio, asking for the privilege of making a presentation on the Bahá’í Faith in that language!

She said later that while she was eager to speak about the Faith, “I was secretly hoping to be refused, since it was very difficult to travel alone to Rio, not to mention taking part in a national Esperanto Congress and knowing so little of the language. But my request was accepted, though all this seemed greatly beyond my ability.

“So word by word, phrase by phrase, helped by a small English-Esperanto dictionary that I had received from a friend in the States, I planned my talk, for my first public discourse on the Faith!

“Afterward, to my great relief, I learned that they were able to understand my Esperanto and the Message I had brought. The president of the society became quite interested in the Faith, and took me for an interview with the newspaper O Jornal. A good article with photos of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—and me—was published on the front page of its Sunday edition.”

By the end of her second year in Brazil, Leonora, weakened by a bout with typhoid fever, wrote to her family and received enough money from her father to pay for her passage home and a side trip to the Amazon River (the latter at the insistence of her father). Her return voyage took a long time indeed! Wherever the boat stopped she disembarked, and if the atmosphere seemed promising she stayed to teach the Faith. In this way she visited the cities—and the newspapers, Theosophist societies, and Esperanto groups—of Vitória, Aracajú, Maceió, Cabadelo, Natal, Fortaleza, São Luiz and Belém, on her way to Manaus!

In Salvador, Bahia, the American consul asked Leonora to stay at his home for three months and teach English to his children, an offer she accepted. Since her afternoons and evenings were free, she secured the use of a room next door to the Theosophist society where she held firesides every day possible. Among the several young people who accepted the Faith at these meetings was Claudenor Luz who kept the room filled with seekers, and later, during Leonora’s absence of more than a year, kept her work alive with much publicity and success.

After leaving Salvador, Leonora stayed for three weeks with a Theosophist family in Recife, speaking several times at the Theosophist lodge there and once before more than 600 people at the Theosophist center. She also had several newspaper interviews that resulted in good articles, often accompanied by photos. Later, in Belém, it was again a Theosophist who opened the way, and it was there that the first of the books she translated into Portuguese, Paris Talks, was published.

During her eight-day trip up the Amazon to Manaus, Leonora made many contacts for the Faith, and in every city where the boat stopped there are now Bahá’í communities that grew from the seeds she planted so many years ago.

After spending about a year in the U.S. Leonora could no longer resist the call of the Faith in South America, and so she returned, together with an eager young Bahá’í, Maud Mickle, and settled in Salvador, Bahia, where she would remain for about the next 15 years.

One of the first to accept the Faith in Salvador was Doña Antonia who kept her home open for Bahá’í meetings every Sunday morning for many years. Leonora was now teaching English, and finally was able to move from her humble surroundings to a part of the city in which she could open an English school. One of her first pupils was a young woman, Margot Glieg (later Margot Worley), who became one of the most ardent and knowledgeable Bahá’ís in that region. Mrs. Worley later served as a member of the Regional National Spiritual Assembly of South America, the Regional Assembly of northern South America, and the National Spiritual Assembly of Brazil before she was named an Auxiliary Board member.

Claudenor Luz remained an active teacher, bringing many interested persons to the meetings, many of whom became Bahá’ís. How happy Leonora must have been before she passed away, knowing that there are in that same region today about 15,000 Bahá’ís!

Soon after the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1921, Leonora was in touch with the beloved Guardian, and carefully followed his loving guidance. Shoghi Effendi pointed out to her the relative importance of her activities: first, teaching; second, translating the Writings; and third, social service work (which she longed to do) among the many thousands of impoverished people of the northwestern region of Brazil—if, the Guardian said, there were time for this—and there never was!

Leonora moved from city to city as the need arose, establishing new localities in which the Light of Bahá’u’lláh might shine. While living in Recife she was married to Harold Armstrong, an English engineer, who became a Bahá’í after having lived for several years in the midst of her shining example. Before his death in 1973, and during their marriage of 32 years, he was able to take from her the burden of having to make a living, which enabled her to devote full time to translating the Writings, traveling on behalf of the Faith, and teaching.

After the tragic death of May Maxwell, Leonora and Jeanne Bolles taught together in São Paulo, Santos and Rio de Janeiro. It was in Rio that they were able to meet Dr. and Mme. Barasch who had received Martha Root in their home in Austria on many occasions and who, in 1945, helped to form the first Spiritual Assembly of Rio de Janeiro with Leonora and Edward and Mary Bode.

Among the many other visitors to Leonora’s home in Brazil were Amelia Collins, Philip Sprague, Rafi and Mildred Mottahedeh, Emeric and Rosemary Sala, Shirley Ward, Beatrice Irwin, Elizabeth Cheney and Virginia Orbison. When writing to “Star of the West” about the progress of the Faith in Brazil, Leonora rarely mentioned herself but always expressed her gratitude to these traveling teachers for their help and inspiration. She never wrote regularly about her own progress

[Page 9] except to the Guardian and to her younger sister in California.

To her sister, Alethe, and brother-in-law, Carl Sigurd Hogberg, Leonora was a shining example of the endless Source of strength that each of us can call on. Not only did they offer moral support in their letters, they always came through when Leonora had pressing financial needs. It was with great pride that Leonora had brought Alethe with her and Maud Mickle for a teaching trip along the Amazon until Alethe had to return to the U.S. and Leonora and Maud to Bahia.

After living in California for more than 30 years, Alethe and her Swedish husband pioneered to Uppsala, Sweden, during the Ten Year Crusade. Mr. Hogberg died in Uppsala and is buried there.

After his death, Alethe joined her daughter, Karin, and Karin’s husband, Robert Leonard, at their pioneer post in Kodiak, Alaska, where she was able before her death to serve on its first Spiritual Assembly.

In 1973, Leonora was named a Continental Counsellor for South America by the Universal House of Justice. She trained her Auxiliary Board members to teach the great masses of people, and as she carefully chose those Board members for their unique capacities, she helped launch some of Brazil’s most outstanding Bahá’í speakers.

Together the Armstrongs bought and sold real estate, and after Mr. Armstrong’s death Leonora continued to buy and remodel houses with an uncanny sense of architecture, and always with a profit. She gave many properties to the National Spiritual Assembly as endowments including the land in the lovely hills of Petropolis at a point called “The Finger of God” that is to be the site of the future Bahá’í House of Worship in Brazil.

One of her last projects was to build two houses designed to look as one on a beautiful hillside outside her last home city of Juiz de Fora. The property was to serve as the local Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds with the second house for a pioneer/caretaker.

In 1930 Leonora had the bounty of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She had gone to Spain to study the language, but while there was struck by scarlet fever. During the long weeks of her recovery, she received a request from the Guardian to come to Haifa. It was with absolute joy that she was able to visit the Holy Places for a brief time, and to experience in person the great strength that she had felt before then only through the loving letters of Shoghi Effendi.

Leonora Armstrong and her niece, Karin Högberg Leonard, in front of the House of Worship in Panama in April 1972.

Her great love, and her lasting contribution to the Faith in Brazil, was the many books she translated into Portuguese. Included were almost all of the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, many of those of the beloved Guardian, and many of the more recent books published on behalf of the Universal House of Justice.

Her efforts were untiring. For example, as she supervised construction of the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in Juiz de Fora, she stood leaning in the doorway, balancing the galley proofs of Selections from the Writings of the Báb on her left arm while making corrections with her right hand.

Many Bahá’ís from the U.S. visited Leonora in Brazil including May Maxwell and her niece, Jeanne Bolles; Mrs. Nellie French, and Mrs. Loulie Matthews.

Having endured several severe ailments during the later years of her life, and having recently undergone surgery for cancer, Leonora passed from this life into the next on October 17, 1980. When the Universal House of Justice learned of her passing, it sent the following message to the heartbroken friends in Brazil:

“Hearts saddened passing distinguished Counsellor Leonora Stirling Armstrong Herald of the Kingdom beloved handmaiden ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spiritual mother of South America. Her sixty years valiant service Cause Brazil shed lustre annals Faith that promising land. Request memorial services Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs Wilmette Panama. Urge all communities Brazil likewise hold services. Offering ardent supplications Most Holy Shrines progress her radiant spirit Abhá Kingdom.”

The memorial service in Wilmette was held at 8 o’clock Saturday evening, February 21, 1981. Among those attending were the members of the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly and 10 of her fellow Counsellors for the Americas, many of whom read during the program.

Aunt Leonora never liked having a fuss made over her, but as the last prayer was read, in Portuguese, by Counsellor Sarah Pereira, I felt her loving presence, and thought that she highly approved of us.

[Page 10]

The world

Bahá’í International Health Agency is established in Ottawa, Canada

More than 50 Bahá’ís who are health professionals in Canada, the United States and Chile were present April 10-11 as the Bahá’í International Health Agency was established in Ottawa, Canada.

The creation of such an agency was recommended at the first Bahá’í International Conference on Health and Healing, held in June 1980 in Ottawa under the sponsorship of the Association for Bahá’í Studies.

The Hand of the Cause of God John Robarts was among those present at the April meeting, which also was sponsored by the Association for Bahá’í Studies. Participants included medical doctors, nurses, counselors, therapists, psychologists, social workers and medical students.

The proposal to create the agency was accepted by the executive committee of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, approved in principle by the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada, and referred to the Universal House of Justice for its guidance.

In approving the creation of a Bahá’í International Health Agency, the Supreme Body stated: “The idea of a special group of Bahá’í health professionals is a useful one, and for the time being it is quite sufficient to develop it as a section within the Association ...”

The agency is being established with the goal of coordinating and encouraging research and education among Bahá’í health professionals and others who are interested or who have knowledge in this area. It should also be of assistance in helping to place Bahá’í health professionals in pioneering posts around the world.

Goals of the agency, as proposed in 1980 and confirmed at the recent policy conference, include compiling a world directory of Bahá’í health professionals, scientists and resources; organizing an international Bahá’í conference on health to be held every three years; publishing the proceedings of these conferences; and developing and distributing educational health programs for children and adults in various countries and cultures.

These educational programs will be made available in written and audio-visual form for use by Radio Bahá’í, Bahá’í schools, Spiritual Assemblies, and non-Bahá’í entities.

Discussions at the April conference focused on the philosophy, objectives and scope of the agency, and on the administrative structure, financial requirements and role of Bahá’í health professionals in the Bahá’í International Health Agency.

Among the highlights was a presentation by Mr. Robarts on the spiritual parameters to be considered by believers, and in this case by believers in the health professions.

For the time being at least, the new agency will be an arm of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, and as such will be under the auspices of the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada. Its administrative work will be directed by a three- to five-member secretariat appointed by the Association’s executive committee.

“In the future,” says Dr. Alexander Reid, a conference participant who heads the pathology department at Paula Jaraquemada Hospital in Santiago, Chile, “it is possible that just as we have the Bahá’í International Community, which represents the Faith at the United Nations, so we might possibly have an International Bahá’í Association for Health that would also have representation at the UN.”

Tonga

Bahá’ís who help staff a Bahá’í Information Center that opened last year in downtown Nuku’alofa, Tonga, are shown in front of the center. The rented room is attractively decorated and contains literature, photographs and Bahá’í materials for sale or loan. Permanent displays attract the public and help the teaching work in Nuku’alofa.

[Page 11]

Nigeria

The Faith was proclaimed on radio and television, in newspapers and at public meetings last June 5-July 2 in the capital cities of nine of Nigeria’s 19 states by Ranzi Casu, a traveling teacher from the Ivory Coast.

Mrs. Casu’s itinerary, arranged by the National Proclamation Committee, included a visit to the minister of social welfare, a number of interviews with the media, including Nigerian national radio, and visits to various Bahá’í communities.

Mrs. Casu, a musician and singer, performed several songs, some about the Faith, for an audience of faculty and students at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka.

In introducing her, the acting head of the university’s music department mentioned that Mrs. Casu is a Bahá’í, and during her performance, Mrs. Casu referred to the Faith.

She was interviewed in Makurdi, the capital of Benue State in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, by a woman associated with a radio program entitled “Feminine Digest.” Afterward, the interviewer invited Mrs. Casu and some other Bahá’ís to her home where, after a two-hour discussion, the interviewer declared her belief in Bahá’u’lláh.

Mrs. Casu, who is originally from Ghana, and Marshall Murphy, a Bahá’í from Alaska, were interviewed in Makurdi for two 30-minute television programs, during which they were able to discuss some aspects of the Faith, especially the unity of mankind.

Mrs. Casu explained that she is a Ghanaian who is married to an Italian and that they live in Ivory Coast. Mr. Murphy mentioned that he is a black Alaskan married to an Ethiopian and now traveling in Nigeria.

Mrs. Casu, who had traveled in Cameroon before arriving in Nigeria with her daughter, Lua, said she is “fully convinced that the great success of this proclamation effort in Cameroon and Nigeria was due to the blood shed by the beloved martyrs in Iran.”

Some of the students and faculty at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka are shown with traveling teacher Ranzi Casu from Ivory Coast (standing fourth from left in back row) who performed at a special concert arranged for her at the university last June 15. The appearance came during a month-long teaching trip in Nigeria by Mrs. Casu and her daughter, Lua.

Bahá’ís enjoy an informal discussion outside of the new Bahá’í Center in Nnewi, Anambra State, Nigeria. Fulfilling one of the Bahá’í goals in Anambra, the building was donated by local Bahá’ís to become a Center that is open each day for prayers and meetings.

Pictured at right are participants in a National Bahá’í Youth Conference held April 2-4 in Jos, Nigeria.

[Page 12]

Hawaii

Samieh Labib (left photo), a Bahá’í from Honolulu, reads a prayer at the opening session of the Hawaii State Senate on March 22. That same day, James Wada, another Bahá’í from Honolulu, reads a Bahá’í prayer at the opening session of the Hawaii House of Representatives. The two events were a part of the Naw-Rúz celebration in Hawaii. Because March 21 fell on a Sunday, the Bahá’í participation in the state’s Senate and House sessions took place the following day.

Ecuador

Members of a Bahá’í teaching team (first five adults standing from left) that was responsible for opening 20 new localities in Ecuador and securing more than 180 declarations are shown with some of the new believers and children. The team’s effort was centered in the Guayas area north of Guayaquíl, where more than 180 people were enrolled during the first nine days of an intensive campaign. The 20 localities were opened at the rate of two each day between March 24 and April 1.

The principal of a prestigious high school in Otavalo, Ecuador, recently visited Radio Bahá’í on behalf of the parents of sixth grade students interested in promoting an interprovince basketball tournament.

The principal said it was the unanimous decision of the parents to use Radio Bahá’í to promote the tournament “because it is listened to in all of the city and in villages of the province.”

He also mentioned a study that was conducted which showed that Radio Bahá’í has 80 per cent of the listening audience in Otavalo.

Cameroon

Thirty-eight people from the area of Yokaduma, Cameroon, became Bahá’ís during the first three months after the arrival there of homefront pioneer Mekek Benda Samuel, a farmer in his twenties. The new believers include 24 pygmies, three of whom are women.

After arriving at his post last February, Mr. Samuel began making two-day trips to remote villages about 375 miles from Yaounde. He hoped to help form three Local Spiritual Assemblies in that area at Riḍván.

Homefront pioneers in Cameroon are showing increasing spiritual capacity. Another young man has made plans to visit the same area, according to a recent report from the Continental Board of Counsellors for Africa.

____________

From Cameroon comes word of the enrollment of the first believer on Annabon, Equatorial Guinea, through the efforts of a pioneer to that small island off the west coast of Africa—one of two islands in the Gulf of Guinea belonging to the tiny west African nation and making up the Province of Fernando Po.

Equatorial Guinea, formerly known as Spanish Guinea, achieved political independence in 1968. Bahá’í activities in that country are assigned to Cameroon under the Seven Year Plan.

[Page 13]

Pakistan

The local Teaching Committee of Karachi, Pakistan, organized two successful week-long proclamation efforts February 26-March 4 and March 26-April 2.

Bahá’í books were presented to 14 school and college principals. Firesides were held in several Bahá’í homes, and the Bahá’ís in Karachi made regular teaching and consolidation trips outside of the city.

Copies of Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era and The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh were presented by Anisur Rehman Dehlavi, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of Pakistan, to the minister for irrigation, power, labor and cooperation.

During their cordial hour-long meeting, the minister expressed a desire to attend Bahá’í gatherings, and assured Mr. Dehlavi of his assistance whenever it might be needed.

Dipchand Khianra, a Counsellor for Asia, visited Pakistan in April, meeting with the National Spiritual Assembly and members of the Auxiliary Board and attending the National Convention in Karachi.

Prof. Khianra also visited the friends in Tharparkar, Sind and Thatta, including those who live in mass-taught areas.

He conducted deepening classes for youth in Karachi and attended a meeting with members of the National Spiritual Assembly, Auxiliary Board members and their assistants, and members of the National Teaching Committee.

Many non-Bahá’ís attended a Naw-Rúz observance in Karachi, Pakistan, that included songs in English and Urdu that were recorded by the Pakistan Radio Corporation for broadcast the following day.

Meanwhile, Bahá’í books and pamphlets were presented to the library of the Allama Agbal Open University in Islamabad as part of the Naw-Rúz observance there.

The event was attended by a professor from the Science Foundation of Islamabad and her family; the director of population, and the secretary of the Establishment of Islamabad.

Speakers at a teaching conference March 27 in Karachi, Pakistan, included Auxiliary Board member Parveen Yazamedi who discussed the importance of teaching and pioneering. The local Teaching Committee presented its annual report to the friends.

Lesotho

Lesotho has a new and lively musical group called the “Mount Carmel Singers” composed of an international group of composers, poets and artists, some with long professional experience.

The new group, which is in great demand, illustrates by its many nationalities and the full utilization of widely varied skills the universality of the Faith.

Laos

Children of Ban Amon, Laos (near Vientiane) are shown during the inauguration last January 31 of activities planned by the Local Youth and Children’s Committee of Vientiane. By May, some 30 children were regularly attending Bahá’í classes at the Ban Amon Bahá’í Center.

More than 60 people including local officials and the non-Bahá’í parents of children enrolled in new weekly Bahá’í children’s classes attended a special meeting January 31 at the Ban Amon Bahá’í Center near Vientiane, Laos.

Participants included two members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Laos, Auxiliary Board member Bouaphanh N. Phanthakoun, and members of the Spiritual Assembly of Vientiane.

The meeting was held to further acquaint the non-Bahá’í parents with the nature of Bahá’í children’s classes held each Sunday.

Mr. Phanthakoun, who also is treasurer of the National Spiritual Assembly of Laos, described the basic Bahá’í teachings emphasizing loyalty to government and non-participation in politics. Local and district officials attending the meeting were reported to be receptive to the Faith.

The Ban Amon Center is east of Vientiane on the Bahá’í Temple property that was purchased more than 10 years ago.

[Page 14]

Trinidad/Tobago

A Bahá’í class taught at a junior secondary school in St. Madeline, South Trinidad, has been added to the school curriculum by the principal, who assigned a teacher to supervise the approximately 50 students. None of the children were Bahá’ís when the classes were begun, but two of them recently declared their belief in Bahá’u’lláh.

Another weekly Bahá’í class at Naparima Boys School in South Trinidad is attended by eight boys, and an introductory class on the Faith at Pleasantville Senior Secondary School is attended by about 30 students, with new ones being added each week.

There have been talks on the Faith at two student assemblies, each with about 2,000 students attending.

As members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Trinidad and Tobago and Bahá’í children look on, Edna Ruth Caverly, a pioneer from the United States to Trinidad and Tobago, presents a mounted fragment of marble from the site of the permanent Seat of the Universal House of Justice to Dr. Harry Collymore, who accepts the gift on behalf of the National Spiritual Assembly. Mrs. Caverly obtained the fragment of marble on her pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1981 and decided to present it to the National Assembly for placement in its archives.

The Philippines

Bahá’í teacher Willie Pineda is shown with some of his students at the Bahá’í Tutorial School in Iriga City, Luzon, the Philippines. Sixty-eight children of the Agta tribe make up the student body at the three-room schoolhouse that was opened by Mr. Pineda in 1980 as the National Spiritual Assembly of the Philippines increased its commitment to tutorial schools under the Seven Year Plan. Supported in part by Bahá’ís from several communities in the area, the school offers daily classes for elementary school students, adult education classes, and deepening classes for youth and older believers. Students usually are placed in more advanced grades in public schools as a result of their attendance.

Canary Islands

More than 100 visitors to the “Spring Book Fair” in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, discussed the Faith at length with believers staffing a Bahá’í booth at the fair.

More than 100 Bahá’í books were sold during the two-week event, which was attended by more than 200,000 people, and Bahá’ís were interviewed for 10 minutes by a local radio station.

The Faith also was mentioned in publicity for the fair that included newspaper articles, posters, and radio and television programs.

Bahá’ís handed out more than 800 pamphlets and invitations to a special conference after the fair at La Laguna University.

The friends planned to have another booth at a fair in La Laguna in September.

[Page 15]

Sweden

Gerald Knight, the alternate representative to the United Nations for the Bahá’í International Community, visited Sweden last October and again in March. While there he had positive meetings with members of the Swedish Foreign Office and with the Swedish press.

The National Proclamation Committee has sent letters about the Faith to all members of the Swedish parliament and to 16 leading cultural figures.

Meanwhile, the National Deepening Committee has launched “Project Riḍván 1983” by asking every Swedish believer to deepen daily in the book, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. Next Riḍván a large conference will be held to celebrate the countrywide deepening that encourages each Bahá’í to finish the book by that time.

Four regional deepening conferences were held during the last Bahá’í year on the book, The Pattern of Bahá’í Life.

Bahá’ís in the province of Värmland, near the Norwegian border east of Oslo, celebrated the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Faith there by producing a local radio program last December that featured an adult believer, a youth, and a pioneer.

John Birks (Dizzy) Gillespie, an American Bahá’í who is a world-renowned jazz trumpeter, visited Sweden again this winter. His concert appearances received wide publicity.

One hundred people attended a meeting last November in Lulea that was co-sponsored by the Bahá’í community of Lulea, the Spiritualists, and the Martinus movement.

And in Västeras, 50 people attended a meeting that was organized by the Bahá’ís, Esperantists and a movement called “The Future in Our Hands.”

Bolivia

Continental Counsellor Lauretta King (seated in center wearing glasses) visited the friends in Cochabamba, Bolivia, last December and January. Many of those present are indigenous believers of the Quechua and Aymara Indian tribes. Mrs. King, who lives in Alaska, is a member of a Tlingit Indian tribe.

Participants at a National Pioneer Conference held last January 16-17 in Cochabamba, Bolivia, chat informally during a break between sessions. Athos Costas, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors for the Americas, was present at the conference. The 30 participants included pioneers to Bolivia from Argentina, Canada, Germany, Iran, Portugal and the United States.

United States

Oil paintings by James Lavadour, a Native American Bahá’í who is a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, have been chosen by the University of Oregon for a traveling art exhibit that is being shown throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Following the tour that is being used by Bahá’í communities and college clubs to proclaim the Faith, the one-man show will be exhibited in the Oregon state house at the request of the state’s governor.

Bahá’í communities have been advised that Mr. Lavadour’s work may be obtained on request to be shown anywhere in the U.S. during the two years that it will be under the aegis of the University of Oregon Museum of Art and supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and other agencies.

Fiji Islands

A group of six traveling Bahá’í teachers from Fiji, Kiribati and Hawaii visited the islands of Rabi, Taveuni and Koro in the Fiji Islands during a recent five-week trip aboard a “teaching yacht” owned by a believer from Hawaii.

The group presented nine public talks to chiefs and villagers and enrolled six new believers.

Thirty-six public officials and dignitaries were presented with Bahá’í books, and the group conducted six deepening sessions for a total of 57 Bahá’ís who live on the three islands.

[Page 16]

Zaire

Peter Vuyiya, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors in Africa, along with Auxiliary Board members Rhoda Ambogo, Festus Mukalama Shayo and Festus Mandu Sunguti undertook a two-month trip last October and November that was designed to help deepen Bahá’ís of Zaire’s Wabembe tribe.

Counsellor Vuyiya began his deepening course by distributing copies of prayers and quotations from The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh.

After the friends read aloud and described their understanding of the prayers and words of Bahá’u’lláh, Mr. Vuyiya commented on the texts. The same method was used by the three Auxiliary Board members.

____________

In Bukavu, Zaire, Bahá’ís began a weekly half-hour radio program last December. The program consists of Bahá’í prayers and selections from The Hidden Words in French and Swahili.

Belgium

Shown here are some of the participants in an international Bahá’í youth conference that was held April 3-4 in Eupen, Belgium. The conference was widely publicized on radio and television and in local newspapers. Participants came from Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland as well as from many parts of Belgium.

Approximately 80 people from several European countries attended an international Bahá’í youth conference April 3-4 in Eupen, Belgium. The conference was sponsored by the National Spiritual Assembly of Belgium with the help of the Local Spiritual Assemblies of Trooz, Seraing, Liége and Aachen.

Speakers at the weekend gathering included Counsellor Louis Hénuzet and Daniel Schaubacher, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Belgium. Also attending was Auxiliary Board member Jean Piérre Laperches.

Four days before the conference, Bahá’ís from Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg were interviewed at a news conference that was attended by reporters from the German-speaking section of the Belgian National Broadcasting Corporation and the press.

The audience for Belgium’s German-language radio programs includes many people in Germany as well as those in the German-speaking area of Belgium.

“Grenz-Echo,” a German-language newspaper in Eupen, published a favorable five-column article about the Faith that included a photo of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice.

Belgium Radio broadcast a five-minute interview about the youth conference that featured a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Luxembourg.

Reporters from the same network recorded another interview on the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran for later broadcast. It featured a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Switzerland.

The media were so interested in the Faith that they also publicized a Bahá’í-sponsored concert in May and a Bahá’í exposition in June.

The first resident of the German-speaking area of Belgium to become a Bahá’í declared his belief in Bahá’u’lláh after attending a meeting in Liége the night before the opening of the youth conference.

Australia

More than 100 Bahá’ís from many parts of Australia attended a conference on Bahá’í scholarship April 9-12 at the Yerrinbool Bahá’í School in New South Wales.

Organized by the Bahá’í Society at the University of Tasmania and approved by the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia, the conference was designed to foster deeper understanding of the Writings; to find ways to present the Faith in courses at schools, colleges and universities; and to encourage the friends to proclaim the Faith to professional people.

Bahá’í scholarship was the topic of the keynote address by Dr. Peter Khan, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors for Australasia.

Other speakers presented papers on how the Teachings relate to recent developments in physics, biology, medicine, psychology and educational theory.

Papers discussing recent developments in music and art from a Bahá’í perspective were supplemented by historical papers dealing with the lives of Bahá’í artists Mark Tobey and Juliet Thompson. Dr. Baher Forghani discussed the life of Mirza Abu’l-Faḍl.

Spain

“Pensamiento Bahá’í,” a bimonthly deepening magazine in Spanish, is being published by the Comité Nacional de Vida Bahá’í de España (National Committee for Bahá’í Life), a committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of Spain.

The one-year subscription price is $5.50 U.S. (ordinary mail) or $7.50 U.S. (air mail).

You may order the magazine from Francisco Javier González, Edificio Cayucu, 8-B, Palma Nova, Mallorca, Spain.

[Page 17]

Panama

Bahá’ís in David, Panama, built this booth for the annual ‘David Fair’ that is held in March. Visitors to the booth asked questions about the Faith, took pamphlets, and purchased Bahá’í books. Those staffing the booth, which was sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of David, included Auxiliary Board member Foad Izadinia. This marked the seventh year in which the Bahá’ís of David have sponsored a booth at the popular fair.

Hong Kong

Shown are some of the 12 children who attended an Intercalary Days party in Hong Kong. Two of the children sang songs and performed dances. Refreshments included a cake in the shape of a nine-pointed star. A Filipino pioneer to Lesotho who was visiting in Hong Kong played the guitar and sang for the children.

Yan Kee Leong, a Counsellor for Asia, was the guest speaker at a musical fireside in Macao that was part of a two-day teaching trip January 9-10 by a group of 15 Bahá’ís from nearby Hong Kong.

The group that visited Macao included the chairman and secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of Hong Kong.

The trip was arranged by the National Youth Committee. Among those present was Harry Yim, the first believer in Macao.

India

Two Bahá’ís who are medical doctors provided medical care to more than 780 residents of villages in the center of Maharashtra State last November and December, and planned to continue their efforts during 1982.

The day-long “medical camps” were sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of Bombay and the State Teaching Committee in Maharashtra. A camp held at Nanapada in November treated more than 180 people, and another held at Pimpri in December served more than 600 villagers.

A mini-conference was held following the second camp at Pimpri. Participants included more than 60 men and 120 women. It was the first time that women in that village had attended a Bahá’í conference.

The medical camp program, said one of the doctors, “has awakened a consciousness in the villagers to pay more attention to their health, and they tell each other to attend the camps and get themselves examined.”

[Page 18] Special Prepublication Offer until October 1, 1982

The Light of Bahá’u’lláh

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Bahá’u’lláh	Social Teachings
Bahá’í Hiatory	Bahá’í Administration
Progressive Revelation	The Local Spiritual Assembly
Bahá’í Laws	Bahá’í Community Life
Spiritual Teachings

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The audio presentations feature more than 200 Bahá’ís of many backgrounds, ages, races, and regions. No scripts were used. The comments came from the hearts of the speakers, and amplify the written text in imaginative ways.

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415 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMETTE, IL 60091