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Educational models in Iranian educational and social

awakening with the special concern on the role of the


Baha'i schools
Dubravko Aladić

ISHA Osijek

Islamic societies in the industrial and modern age were behind western countries when it comes
to industrial and cultural development. In 19th and 20th century Iran the situation regarding
education and industrial development was concerning and in the middle of 19 th century ppublic
school started to replace old Islamic schools who were on the strogn influence of the Shariya law
system and Islamic traditions which were obsolete at that time. So during the initial phase od
educational awakening in Iran, a new faith has emerged with the main goal to spread education
among the people, they were the Baha’i and they were the Islamic englighters, because no
religious sect in Iran before that time used this kind of philosophy and soon their schools were
opening al over Iran. Anyone could go in their schools so they were very popular. Soon even the
Iranina shah sent his children to the Baha’i schools but after they rejected the shah’s law which
was ordering every school to have unique holidays according to muslim calendar, the
persecution of Bahai’s started and the destruction of their school which lasts until today.

Introduction

Education is a very powerful tool when it comes to enlightening the society with knowledge. The
whole topic of educational models is particularly interesting because it involves several factors
and those factors can have a big influence on the state, the people and most important, on the law
itself, because everybody needs to pass education in certain schools to go to college or to work
on important projects or just to do a regular job. Also, governemnts use education as a very
powerful tool which they can manipulate (for good or for bad) the society, in this article the main
discussion will be about the Baha’i schools who were a unique example at the time of their
founding for an reformed enlightened secularised school in the heart of the Islamic world.

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1. Educational awakening in 19th century Iran

Russian victory over Qajar Persia in 1813 and 1828. put Russian Empire at the peak of its
might with the tsar Nicholas I (1825-1855) as the ruler. Iran lost traditional status among the
community of nations and the sovereignity of the state became dependent upon British and
Russian interest. (Lieven, The Cambridge history of Russia, 540) According to the treaty of
Turkmanchai signed on 22 fevruary 1828, new inequality has been recorded between Iran and
Russia. Iran agreed to pay Russia an indemnity of 20 million roubles, a vast sum for a coountry
with primitive economy. All prisoners of war were to be returned, Iran was not to permit
hundreds of Russian deserters who joined Persian forces, to be stationed near the frontier. The
commercial part of the treaty laid the basis to the Russian influence in Iran. Russian subjects
there were permited to buy houses and shops which Iranian officials were prohibited from
entering without the authorization of the Russian minister and russian subjects were exempt from
the iranian jurisdiction. Th treaty of Turkmanchai set rules of the reltions beteen Russia and iran
in the forthcoming ninety years. (Avery, Hambly, Melville, The Cambridge history of Iran, 338)

Since that date, every international event has had an influence on a political life in Iran,
which in turn has led to administrative reorganization. More precisely, the government needed a
skilled bearucratic administration and that could be accomplished only with a system of higher
education geared to the production of trained governement personnel. (Arasteh, Educational and
social awakening in Iran, 20)

By the mid-nineteenth century, the significant achievements of Europe in the areas of science
and technology, capitalism and positivism had brought it to the enjoyment of a golden era. This
European advancement triggered many non-Western reformers and reformist intellectuals to call
for the imitation of the European model, and to equalize ‘civilization’ with ‘Western civilization.’
In the Middle East, and due to the military defeats, reform was implemented first in the very area
where that defeat was most felt, namely the army, but soon it moved into other fields, covering
even the ‘not so likely’ ones, such as religion (by producing reformist Islamic thought, and
religious movements such as Mahdism in the Sudan and the Babi-Baha’i movement in Iran) and
politics (by producing pro-constitutional and anti-despotic movements, such as in the Ottoman
Empire and Iran).

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At first, Iran came to know the more negative and aggressive side of Western modernism. It was
under the umbrella of the civilizing, developing and modernizing of traditional and premodern
societies (while in reality the West sought to extend its imperialistic rule over the very same
societies), that Iran encountered the West, became one of its markets and soon found itself in the
midst of the European great power rivalry which spilled over into the Middle East..

Abbas Mirza, Nayib al-Saltanih (1799–1833), the Iranian crown prince and governor of
Azerbaijan, who, as the person responsible for the defence of Iran’s northern borders, closely
witnessed and experienced the progress of Russia as well as the backwardness of Iran. It was
these feelings that brought him to initiate reforms, and thus to begin the reformist period in Qajar
Iran.

The pressures for change steadily intensified with the loss of territory, human life and revenues,
through the humiliation resulting from the penetration and growing influence of Western powers
(an indication of the weakness of the central government); through royal and provincial
absolutism; through the insecurity of the populace, subjected to forced conscription into a
heavily corrupted army for its adventurous military campaigns, as well as suffering frequent
incursions upon villages by frontier nomads (mainly the Turkmen from the north-east).

The more the contact with the West varied and intensified, the more the pressure for change
increased in other fields. Thus, what was limited at first to the military/strategic realm soon
entered also into the commercial, cultural, ideological, social and political spheres, affecting the
various aspects of daily life in Iran

In the process of reorganizing the army, the first thing towards that goal were well trained
officers and administrators who could be given government responsibility. It was envisioned an
institution of higher learning in Tehran, and the polytechnic school, Dar al-Funun was completed
in 1851. Amir Khabir made arrangements for the employment of a teaching staff and the course
of study. Because of the Anglo-Russian rivalry of interests in Iran, he sought educational
assistance from Austria. He gave his Austrian envoy authority to make contracts with the
Austrian professors for a period of four to six years and to offer them four to five thousand
tomans a year plus 400 tomans toward their travel expenses. The professors, selected with the
help of the Emperor, represented a variety of disciplines: artillery, infantry, cavalry, military

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engineering, medicine, surgery, physics, mathematics, mineralogy and chemistry. After Amir
Kabir's dismissal the Shah asked Mirza Muhammad 'Ali Khan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to
direct the opening of the College. In turn, the Minister requested the governor to select about 30
students between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. Although they were chosen exclusively from
the ranks of the aristocracy, landlords and top government officials, the demand for admission far
exceeded expectations. The school finally admitted to the first class 105 students, who enrolled
in the following fields; army science (61), engineering and mining (12), medicine (20), chemistry
and pharmacy (7) and mineralogy (5). (Shahvar, The forgotten schools, 21

Tuition was free and students received a small stipend plus their meals. The course of study
lasted six years or more and offered practical and technical subjects. Students were expected to
have a mastery of the classics before entering, but later the curriculum was modified so as to
include a liberal arts program plus foreign languages (English, French and Russian). French
became the medium of instruction, for European professors comprised all the faculty, except for
a few Iranians who had studied abroad. The students received good technical training. They had
an opportunity to produce scientific equipment in the chemical and physical laboratories, and in
an adjoining wax factory they utilized some of their acquired skills. (Arasteh, Educational and
social awakening in Iran 21)

2. Rise of the Baha’i religion

The new faith came into existence through the teachings of two successive founders. The
first, a yooung persian merchant known to history as the Bab (Mirza Ali Muhammad), anounced
in Shiraz, in May 1844, that he was the bearer of a message from God, whom the Shi’ih branch
of Islam had long expected under the title ‘’the twelfth Imam.’’ Central to the Bab’’s teaching
was the mission of preparing mankind for the advent of ‘’Him Whom God Shall make
Manifest,’’ the universal divine messenger anticipated in the scripture of all major
religionsMuslim clergy incited widespread attacks on his followers and soon the Bab was
executed in the city of tabriz, in 1850. However in 1863, one of his leading disciples, a Persian
nobleman named Baha’u’llah announced that he was the messenger for whom the Bab had come
to prepare the way. (Douglas, Persecutions of the Bahis, 7)

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Even more striking than his discussions of religious matters and spiritual revelations was his
view for society. His vision was broad in scope. In his most important book, the Bayan, he wrote
that a time was coming when new forms of learning and science would appear. He called on
people to embrace learning and to help bring about a new society. He provided the principles for
a Babi society. These included a system of laws for society to live by. They also laid down rules
for matters such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance. Another section gives rules for the
relationship between the Babi state and other nations. Above all the Bab’s vision was a peaceful
one. He rejected the idea that converts could be won by the sword. He urged his followers to be
gentle and cause no sorrow to others. (Hartz, World’s religions. Baha’i faith, 20)

Baha’u’llah was born Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri 1817 in Tehran, the son of a high Iranian
government official. He joined the millenarian Babi movement in 1844. When it was suppressed
by the Qajar state and the Shi’ite clergy he was branded a heretic.7 In 1850 the leader of the
movement, Ali Muhammad Shirazi, the Bab, was executed, and as a result in 1852, a cabal of
disgruntled Babis in the capital made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Shah. Although
later exonerated, Baha’u’llah was arrested in connection with the plot and imprisoned briefly,
then exiled to Baghdad in the Ottoman Empire. There, in 1863, because of a series of mystical
revelatory experiences, he declared himself the promised one predicted by the Bab. The
Ottomans brought him to Istanbul and then Edirne, and he stayed in the latter city until 1868. In
the Edirne period, he came into conflict with his younger half-brother Mirza Yahya Subh-i Azal,
who was widely recognized as the Bab’s vicar and who rejected Baha’u’llah’s claim to be a new
theophany. Baha’u’llah’s popularity grew so great among the Babis that he quickly eclipsed his
rival, and most Babis became Bahai’s. Baha’u’llah was then exiled to Akka in Ottoman Syria, in
the environs of which he lived until his death in 1892. He was considered a heretic by the
Muslim powers of his day, and the new religion he created was obnoxious to many Muslims,
who believed that theirs was the final religion. He taught values of universal love, world unity,
the unity of the religions, an improvement of the position of women and an end to war. (Gleave,
Religion and society in Qajar Iran, 313)

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The Baha’i faith became a source of religious, moral and social modernism in Qajar Iran, and
drew many converts not only from the Babi community, but also from the majority Shi‘i
population, as well as from the other religious minorities, especially Zoroastrians (mainly in
Yazd) and Jews (mainly in Kashan and Hamadan). By the end of the nineteenth century the
Baha’i community in Iran numbered some 100,000 people, who came from all levels and sectors
of Iranian society, and included villagers, artisans, merchants, landlords, courtiers, intellectuals
and even clerics, as well as converts from the religious minorities. Although neglected even in
the neighbouring Ottoman empire with the accusation of being the betrayers of Islam. Their ideas
were not limited to only one segment of the population, but found their way into all levels of
Iranian society. (Sharon, Studies in modern religions, religious movements and the babi baha’i
faiths, 277)

In his will Baha’u’llah named his oldest surviving son, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, to be leader of the
faith after him. He also left instructions for taking the developing religion into the 20th century.
Baha’u’llah and the Baha’is must have placed importance on ensuring a smooth transition of
charisma to his successor to avoid the sectarian dissension which overcame Muslims after the
death of the Prophet. Furthermore, the Shii background of Baha’u’ullah and most Baha’iis also
yielded certain expectations as to who is eligible to succeed, how he is supposed to be
determined, what kind of qualities he must exhibit and what kind of authority he will exercise,
thus a man with great charisma was found in Abdu’l-Baha. (Scharbrodt, Islam and the Baha’i
faith, 85)

3. Baha’i schools in Iran

Muzaffar al-Din, the new Persian shah started an educational reform. The shah knew French
and was acquainted with Western ideas and the subjects taught in Western schools; he was also
aware of the scientific and technological advances in the West, some of which he wanted to
introduce or extend in Iran. For some time, and especially after Nasir al-Din Shah’s first visit to
Europe (1873), Iran had been taking larger steps towards Europeanization. Compared to earlier
years, the changes seen in Iran in the last quarter of the nineteenth century were quite visible.
(Shahvar, The forgotten schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 75)

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Faced with the growing need and demand for modern education on the one hand, and for
more qualified cadres able to introduce and implement the reforms on the other, Muzaffar al-Din
has decided to allow the opening of Baha’i schools as an additional means of meeting those
needs and demands. After all, similar permits had already been granted to the other religious
minorities (Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews) and even to some foreign non-Muslim religious
and cultural bodies. Furthermore, by the time the Tarbiyat Boys’ School was officially
recognized, it had already been operating for at least two or three years, because it had to assess
its standard of education, and probably to justify the opening of other Baha’i schools on the
assumption that they would follow Tarbiyat’s example. Its manager, ‘Azizullah Misbah, was
widely known, especially as an expert on Persian, Arabic and French literature, which gives a
good reason in itself for granting official recognition to the school. (Shahvar, The forgotten
schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 63)

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There is, no written permission, either in the form of an imperial edict or a government
decision, allowing the Baha’i community to open schools as a collective. Such permission was
never given to the Baha’i community collectively, but was given only to individuals who were
Baha’is, without this fact being mentioned in the official documentation. (Shahvar, The forgotten
schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 76)

For the Baha’is the opening of modern schools was not just a question of social mobility or a
means to a better income, but it was also a religious duty. The first modern Baha’i school in Iran,
named Madrasih-yi Tarbiyat-i Banin (the Tarbiyat Boys’ School) opened in Tehran in 1899 and
was followed by more than 40 other modern Baha’i schools that opened in other towns and
villages with large Baha’i communities during the following 35 years. (Shahvar, The forgotten
schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 60)

Soon after the establishment of Tarbiyat-i Banin, other Baha’i schools began to open in cities,
towns and villages where Baha’is resided in greater numbers. Once they had been officially
recognized, every Baha’i school adopted the curriculum set by the Ministry of Education, and
after the approval of the Fundamental Law of Education (Qanun-i Asasi-yi Farhang, 1 November
1911), which also specified the programme for the modern schools in Iran, this too was willingly

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adopted by all the Baha’i schools. However, in addition to the curriculum set by the Ministry of
Education, these schools introduced other subjects, which gave their students much extra
knowledge and useful skills. (Shahvar, The forgotten schools. The Bahais and the modern
education in Iran, 1899-1934, 60)

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This Baha’i educational activity, which had a major impact on the Iranian Baha’i community
as well as on the progress of modern education in Iran, coincided with similar activity by other
local and foreign non-Muslim elements. However, it was one thing to allow other religious
minorities (Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians), various Christian missionaries (mainly American,
French and British), and secular French cultural organizations (such as the AF and AIU), to open
schools in Shi‘i Iran and the other to allow the Baha’is to do so as well. After all, Christians and
Jews were regarded as ‘people of the book’ (ahl al-kitab) and therefore protected (ahl al-dhima),
as were the Zoroastrians. Baha’is, on the other hand, were considered murtadd, with no
protection, whose blood could be shed (mahdur al-damm), who were without rights (maslub al-
huquq), and whose property was mubah (belonging to no one, and thus to all) and which could
therefore be plundered (manhub al-mal). (Shahvar, The forgotten schools. The Bahais and the
modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 61)

The Baha’i schools excelled, not only in comparison with other local schools, but also
compared with those of the other religious minorities and the foreign schools. They followed the
curriculum of the Ministry of Education, but additional subjects, in line with the principles of
modern European education, were taught in them. Much opposition was raised against the Baha’i
schools, and this opposition was twofold, coming mainly from anti-modern and anti-Baha’i
elements within Iranian society, and it was this opposition which continuously sought to bring
about their closure. (Shahvar, The forgotten schools. The Bahais and the modern education in
Iran, 1899-1934, 72)

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The students who studied at the Baha’i schools were considered quite privileged, for they
usually received more or less the highest level and standard of education available at the time in
Iran. This was in line with Baha’i teachings on excellence, especially in education. Strain every
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nerve to acquire both inner and outer perfections, said Baha’u’llah, adding that ‘so much as
capacity and capability allow, ye needs must deck the tree of being with fruits such as
knowledge, wisdom, spiritual perception and eloquent speech.’ He called on Baha’is to ‘guard
against idleness and sloth’, urging them to ‘cling unto that which profiteth mankind, whether
young or old, whether high or low. It was teachings such as these that made Baha’i schools adopt
a richer curriculum for their students. However, except for the state curriculum, these schools
introduced other subjects which further enriched the students’ knowledge and provided them
with additional skills. These included new subjects, such as singing and music classes, as well as
classes in foreign languages (mainly French and English), painting, sewing, embroidery, cooking
and lace making. In addition, there were various other activities, including sport (such as arena
polo) and arts (theatre). Additional classes, such as Esperanto, manners and speech were also
arranged for the students, in order to expand their knowledge in other useful fields, and took
place even after the Baha’i schools were closed down by the authorities (Shahvar, The forgotten
schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 80)

The Baha’i (and some foreign) schools were usually the first to use certain teaching facilities
well before they were introduced in other schools; these included amenities such as blackboards,
geography maps, benches and desks, laboratories and libraries. Not all Baha’i schools, however,
had such a rich curriculum and enjoyed all these facilities. In general, the larger the Baha’i
school and the more centrally located (namely those located in the main cities, such as Tehran,
Hamadan, Kashan, Yazd, etc.), the richer the curriculum offered and the range of facilities
available. Baha’i Summer Schools, in which Baha’i children from all over the world gathered
(and still do), provided further training, whether for a few days or several weeks. (Shahvar, The
forgotten schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 81)

The religious duty to educate their children, combined with the winds of change and
modernization which were blowing through Iran, especially from the end of the nineteenth
century onwards, had motivated many Baha’is to do their utmost to provide the best education
possible. It was therefore not enough to establish modern Baha’i schools with a richer
curriculum; it was also necessary to ensure their continuous operation. Because of that, all
Baha’is, rich and poor, individually and collectively, gathered all their resources and energies.
For example, in 1913, some five years after being founded, the Baha’i community of Hamadan

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decided to direct all their share in the earnings from the public bath and butchery (which they
owned jointly with the Jewish community of Hamadan), to the Ta’yid School. (Shahvar, The
forgotten schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 81)

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The Tarbiyat School, as the first modern Baha’i school founded in Iran, and being located in
the capital, Tehran, under the close and observing eyes of the central government, drew the most
attention. Various Ministry of Education documents, signed either by the education minister or
the ministry’s head of inspection and sent to ‘Ata’ullah Bakhshayish, one of the school’s
managers, ranked both the Tarbiyat Boys’ and the Tarbiyat Girls’ Schools at the top of all schools
in Iran, in terms of compatibility with the Ministry of Education’s programme, the students’
knowledge, the educational standards and behaviour, and the management of the school. Some of
the graduates of the Tehran Tarbiyat Boys’ School, which was considered to be the best of all the
Baha’i schools, if not of all the schools in Iran, managed – due to the depth and breadth of
knowledge that they had acquired in the school – to reach high positions and posts in the country
in the state and private sectors, as well as in the armed forces. (Shahvar, The forgotten schools.
The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 82)

In 1910 Sidney Sprague, an American Baha’i educator in Tehran who taught english at
Tarbiyat school believed that one of the reasons why they make greater progress is that their
school program is based on that of the American school system. Students were divided into
different levels and studied English, Arabic, mathematics and other subjects every day, instead of
a few days per week. This made Tarbiyat unique and outstanding. (Shahvar, The forgotten
schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 83)

Tarbiyat’s exceptional standard of education attracted students not only from Tehran, but also
from other cities, to such an extent that Sprague was thinking of building dormitories and turning
the school into a boarding school. As was done in American schools, Sprague even started a
boys’ club for the older boys in the school. He asked his Baha’i friends in America to send used
copies of Literary Digest and any other American magazines, as well as some plays for boys, in
which ‘no girls partake’, and with short and easy acting roles. (Shahvar, Forgotten schools. The
Baha’is and mdoern education in Iran, 82) The Tarbiyat-i Banat also set the highest standards for

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other Baha’i and non-Baha’i schools for girls. American female educators were instrumental in
turning this school into one of the best, if not the best girls’ school in Iran. (Shahvar, The
forgotten schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 83)

(Insert picture no. 6)

Character building and morals enhancement were high on the school’s list of priorities. Sarah
Clock was so critical of the character of the Iranian people statinf that she doesn’t know one
single person who can be trusted. She believed that this problem had to be tackled, at least within
the school, and it seems that the American staff thought they had found the solution for it. When
they caught some of the girls lying, they would wash their mouth with a strong laundry soap and
according to them, it has done wonders. (Shahvar, The forgotten schools. The Bahais and the
modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 83)

It seems that the system and programme of education at the Tarbiyat Girls’ School was so
distinctive that, according to Miss Clock, ‘no matter where you go in a meeting or anywhere else
you can always pick out a girl from the Tarbiyat School from her behaviour and general conduct.
(Jahanbegloo, Iran: Between tradition and modernity, 44)

Greater and smaller challenges faced the American teaching staff of the Tarbiyat Girls’
School. For example, a trivial item like plain chalk was hard to find in Iran, and the locally made
brand was so bad that it was ‘almost useless. Other difficulties and challenges were mostly
inherent in the differences between the American and the Iranian staff of the school – in
character, culture, teaching methods, managing finances, etc. In short, it was modernity versus
tradition. (84) Thus, the Tarbiyat Girls’ School became ‘the only school in all Iran where the new
subjects were taught by analysis rather than memorizing. (Shahvar, The forgotten schools. The
Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 85)

In 1910, when Monsieur André Ittihadiyyih became the headmaster of the Ta’yid School,
major changes took place in the quantity and quality of the school’s cultural and scientific
programmes. More attention was given to music, art clubs were established and the educational
programmes were extended. He employed many highly qualified teachers and managed to turn
the Ta’yid from a primary school into an intermediate school, in which modern sciences as well
as the Persian, Arabic and French languages were taught at the most advanced levels. The
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progress of the Ta’yid School in those early years was so rapid, and its fame so widely circulated
in Hamadan, that many of the city’s civil officials and famous people also sent their children to
the school, without any hesitation or superstitious notions. Thus, the number of students at the
Ta’yid School soon exceeded 700 and left the American and Alliance schools literally in the
shadows.’ The two Baha’i schools in Hamadan also had an impressive library of 4,000 books in
Persian, French, Arabic and English, used extensively by their students and the local Baha’is
(Shahvar, The forgotten schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 88)

The Baha’i schools in the small towns and in villages probably found it difficult to maintain
the level of education of the Tarbiyat in Tehran, but they were still far better than other schools in
their area. While the Abadih State School had only four grades, the local Baha’i school had six,
and even managed later to open the seventh and eighth grades as well. In Khushih, Gurgan, the
first group of students from the Baha’i local school who had completed the fourth grade
managed to pass the Ministry of Education’s exams for the fifth grade (Shahvar, The forgotten
schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 88)

In Ayval, one of the villages of the provincial village (dihistan) of Chahar-Dangih Surtij
(which belongs to the provincial town of Sari, located in Mazandaran province), a Baha’i school
was founded in 1923–4 by a Baha’i named ‘Abd al-‘Ali Shahmirzadi (known as ‘Shahab’). At
first the Muslim residents of the village were opposed to its opening. They complained to the
local authorities that by opening the school, the Baha’is intended to turn their children away from
Islam, and they avoided sending their children to the school. But after three years, when they
could see that the Baha’i children had become educated while their own children were not
making much progress in the old maktab-khanihs, they began to flock to the Baha’i school to
register their children so that the children would receive a proper education. When Shahmirzadi
sent a sample of the handwriting (khatt) of the school’s students to Haji Shaykh, called Ali Vulu
(one of the two influential local clerics who had earlier complained to Sarim al-Sultan, the local
governor, about the opening of the Baha’i school), Vulu’i presented the handwriting sample to
the local village council and confessed: This is the penmanship and knowledge of four months of
their education. It is fair to say that the knowledge of our children, who have been studying with
these akhunds for the last five years, does not match that of those who have been studying at the

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Baha’i-run school four months. (Shahvar, The forgotten schools. The Bahais and the modern
education in Iran, 1899-1934, 89)

The Sa‘adat-i Banat Girls’ School, which opened in Najafabad in 1925, turned, within a short
period, into one of the best educational institutions of the Isfahan region, causing much
astonishment among the officials of the local branch of the Education Ministry as to what made
the students of this, as well as those of the boys school, so well educated. The Baha’i schools –
according to the testimonies of both Baha’is and non-Baha’is – were highly positioned, if not the
highest, on the scale of modern and quality education in late Qajar and early Pahlavi Iran. This
fact led a growing number of non-Baha’is to send their children to those schools. Based only on
the available data, there were some 4,915 students studying in the Baha’i schools throughout
Iran. Given that a considerable amount of information, including student numbers, is still lacking
with regard to many of the Baha’i schools (especially those in Fars and Gilan provinces), one
must strongly assume that the number was actually much higher. It was certainly far greater than
the number of students who attended the schools of the American and french mission schools.
Even when it is compared to the available figures for national attendance in elementary schools
(78,000 for the year 1926–7), the number of those known to have enrolled in Baha’i schools is
still impressive, at about 6.5 per cent. Again the percentage is probably considerably higher when
the missing data is taken into account, and at any rate is much higher than the percentage of
Baha’is in the total population. (Shahvar, The forgotten schools. The Bahais and the modern
education in Iran, 1899-1934, 90)

As a military man who could not stand disobedience, and as a nationalist who could not
tolerate supranational loyalty, Riza Shah (1925-1941) clashed with the Baha’is – first, for their
refusal to keep their schools open on a day not declared by the state as a national holiday and,
second, for their superior loyalty to their religious leader residing outside Iran, rather than to the
shah, their national leader inside Iran. Therefore on 8 December 1934, a new law was impose
who orders every school in Iran to be opened on the state holiday, no matter which religious
minority is holding the certain school which meant the end for the Baha’i schools in Iran which
slowly in the next couple of years despite their excellence had to close. (Shahvar, The forgotten
schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-1934, 130)

4. Persecutions of the Baha’i


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4.1 Persecutions during the Qajar and Pahlavi regimes

The ignorance and the prejudice originated in the tragic events that surrounded the
beginning of the Babi and Baha'i faiths in nineteenth century Persia. According to the Shi'ih
Muslim clergy, the claims made by the Bab (and later by Baha'u'llah) were not merely heretical,
but a threat to the foundations of Islam. Orthodox Islam holds that Muhammad was the" Seal of
the Prophets" and thus the bearer of Gods final revelation to mankind. Certain other faiths ,
principally Judaism and Christianity, are considered to be valid but defective religious systems
founded in earlier revelations which were later corrupted by their followers. Only Islam has
remained pure and undiminished because its repository, the Qur'an, represents the authentic
words of the prophet. From this baseline, Muslim theology has gone on to assert that Islam
contains all that mankind will ever require until the Day of Judgement. There are two principal
reasons why the Baha’is are persecuted: (1) Bahá’ís lack dhimmi (protected) status and are
therefore excluded from Qur’anic protection, and (2) the Bahá’í Faith is a post-Islamic religion
which is a theoretical impossibility considering Muhammad’s ontological status as the “Seal of
the Prophets” (Buck, Islam and the minorities. The case of the Baha’i, 87)

During the remaining decades of the rule of the Qajar shahs, therefore, the Baha'i
community intermittently experienced attacks instigated by mullahs, seconded from time to time
by local or provincial authorities. Under pressure from European governments, however, the later
Qajar shahs refrained from further direct involvement in the pogroms and were even induced, on
occasion, to restrain some of the worst excesses. During that time the Baha'is were a proscribed
minority which survived only by keeping a low profile and by respecting Baha'u'llah's
prohibition against violence, even in self-defense. (Douglas, Persecutions of the Baha’is in Iran
1844-1984, 14)

The establishment of the 1906 constitution, which theoretically brought a new era of
liberty to Persia, in fact assured continuing discrimina tion against the Baha'is. Unlike the Jews,
Christians and Zoroastrians whom they far outnumbered, the Baha' is were denied any form of
recognition in the constitution and its attendant acts, with the result that they were legally
"nonpersons" in Persian public life. (Douglas, Persecutions of the Baha’is in Iran 1844-1984, 14)

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Following the upheavals of the First World War, Iran appeared to be sinking into anarchy.
It was relatively easy for a Cossack officer, Reza Khan, with the support of his troops, the
assistance of certain Persian politicians, and the complaisance of the British government, to
march on Tehran and carry out a coup d' etat. (Douglas, Persecutions of the Baha’is in Iran 1844-
1984, 15)

During the early years of his reign, Reza Shah appointed a number of Baha'is to
important positions in the civil administration, particularly those branches of government related
to finance. Although, as a salve to the mullahs, laws were passed restricting the general
employment of Baha'is in the civil service, minor improvements in the position of the Baha' is
began to appear. Baha'is could count on a limited degree of protection from persecution and were
eventually permitted to open schools. As these schools rapidly gained a reputation for excellence,
the monarch was moved to enrol his own children. the government began to formalize a policy
of discrimination which was to characterize the treatment of the Baha'i community for the next
five decades. The Baha' is became, in effect, a safety valve for the regime. Baha'is were the one
target against whom the clergy were permitted to vent their mounting frustration with the
restrictions under which even the 'ulama had to live. Beginning in 1933, the publication of Baha'i
literature was banned; Baha'i marriage was deemed concubinage, and prison sentences were set
for those who admitted to marrying according to Baha'i law; a number of Baha'i cemeteries were
expropriated; Baha'is in the public service were demoted or fired; attacks in the press were freely
permitted; and eventually the Baha'i schools were closed. (Douglas, Persecutions of the Baha’is
in Iran 1844-1984, 18)

In 1962, the Shah announced the launching of what he called a "White Revolution" which
included a land bill involving a major redistribution of the ownership of agricultural lands
throughout the country. A simultaneous program of intense industrial development tightly tied
the fortunes of the emerging capitalist class to the interests of the State. (Douglas, Persecutions
of the Baha’is in Iran 1844-1984, 24 )

As early as the 1950s, Baha'is were becoming prominent in the self-employed


professions. As the Shah's ambitious modernization campaign gained momentum and the need
for trained resources became acute, it was obvious that one of the few pools of qualified
personnel in Iran was the Baha'i minority. Muslim clergy accused the Baha'i community that its
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members were a "favoured elite" who benefitted not through their own efforts, but because of
undisclosed advantages they enjoyed. (Douglas, Persecutions of the Baha’is in Iran 1844-1984,
28)

Another form of segregating the Baha’i is when the government commission imposed a
supplementary tax of 50 million tumans on the holdings of the Baha'i community, and a few days
later raised this figure to 80 million tumans. The parallels with the treatment of the Jews in
medieval Europe are nowhere more striking than in the Pahlavi regime's economic exploitation
of its Baha'i subjects. In 1975 Shah decided to create a new single-party system Rastakhiz
(Resurgence party) and everbody who wanted to reatin their job and land had to join the party.
Given the fact that the Baha’i minority restrained themselves from political activity, this was the
final step to isolation of the Baha'i minority from the rest of the nation. (Douglas, Persecutions of
the Baha’is in Iran 1844-1984, 29 )

When the Pahlavi regime finally collapsed in February 1979, the vast majority of Iranians
hailed the revolution as the dawn of the long awaited era of political liberty and national
reconstruction. In the same interviews in which the Ayatollah and his spokesmen promised
toleration for religious minorities, they explicitly denied any such rights to Iran's largest religious
minority. Only the Baha'is were conspicuously excluded from Ayatollah’s assurances and the
segregation and pogroms of Baha’is last until today. (Douglas, Persecutions of the Baha’is in
Iran 1844-1984, 30 )

5. Conclusion

To conclude, religion in a certain state can manipulate people, until that manipulation is handed
over to the government or better said, education. The Baha’i faith which emerged in Iran in the
second half of the 19th century was a rather different one from the other similar religions in that
country. Baha’u’llah (the founder of Baha’ism) taught that human mind is limitless and that it
must be filled with knowledge, so every duty of the Baha’i believer was education and not
religious wars. They were strictly non-violent (even in self-defence they were not permitted to do
violent acts) and that is one of the main reasoons why the persecution of the Baha’i was so easy
for the Shi’a muslims and the other reason being that there is no other prophet after Muhhamad.
With the Baha’i, Baha’u’llah was the last prophet who united Zoroastrianism, Judaism,

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Christianism and Islam. That was the ground fact which justified persecutions of the Baha’i from
19th century until today. At the end of the 19th century the new shah allowed Baha’i to ope
schools in Iran which prooved to be a good decision because baha’i schools became advanced in
every level of education and soon even the shah’s children attended those schools which prooved
their quality, but nevertheless, the persecutions (although in smaller amount) still continued and
only 35 years after the opening of the first baha’i school, Reza shah Pahlavi announced the
closure of all baha’i schools in Iran and after a quarter of the century od advanced ideas being
taught in those baha’i educational facilites, they ceised to exist and the Baha’i and the whole of
Iran sank into ignorance, because state schools needed a lot of time to recuperate from this loss.
One of the bright points of the whole era of baha’i schools is that prominent intelectuals and
statesmen who were on important positions in Iran were educated in baha’i schools.

6. References

1. Arasteh, Reza, Educational and social awakening in Iran, 1976, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1962

2. Shahvar, Soli, The forgotten schools. The Bahais and the modern education in Iran, 1899-
1934, I.B. Tauris publishers, London, 2009

3. Douglas, Martin, Persecutions of the Baha’is 1844-1984, Association for Baha’i studies,
Ottawa, 1984

4. Lieven, Dominic, The Cambridge history of Russia, vol. II, Imperial Russia 1689-1917,
Cambridge university press, Cambridge, 2006

5. Avery, Peter, Hambly Gavin, Melville, Charles, The Cambridge history of Iran, vol. VII,
From Nadir shah to the islamic Republic, Cambridge unicersity press, Cambridge, 2007

6. Gleave, Robert, Religion and society in Qajar Iran, RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2005

7. Hartz, Paula, World’s religions. Baha’i faith, Chelsea house publishers, New York, 2009
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8. Scharbrodt, Oliver, Islam and the Baha’i Faith. A comparative study of Muhammad Abduh
and Abdul-Baha Abbas, Routledge, New York, 2008

9. Sharon, Moshe, Studies in modern religions, religious movements and the Babi Baha’i faiths,
Brill, Boston, 2004

10. Buck, Christopher, Studies in Contemporary Islam: Islam and Minorities. The case of the
Bahai’s, Routledge, London, 2003

11. Jahanbegloo, Ramin, Iran: Between tradition and modernity, Lexington books, Oxford, 2004

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