On Baha'i Bloggers: Through the Eyes of a Persian-American

I have been enjoying Nizam's various posts on Scribbles of a Persian Anesthesiologist.

Nizam and his wife Shahrzad

In "Remembering Mona" he writes: Today, I found myself pondering on the life of Mona Mahmudnizhad, the teenager who was put to death in Shiraz solely on the basis of her religious beliefs as a member of the Baha'i community. The poem below by Shamlou captures what history has witnessed too many times:

مرد ِ تلخ که بر شاخه‌ی خشک ِ انجيربُني وحشي نشسته بود سری

جنباند و با خود گفت:

«چنين است آری.

مي‌بايست از لحظه

از آستانه‌ی زمان ترديد

بگذرد

و به قلمرو ِ جاودانه‌گي قدم بگذارد

زايش ِ دردناکي‌ست اما از آن گزير نيست

بار ِ ايمان و وظيفه شانه مي‌شکند، مردانه باش!»

حلقه‌ی تسليم را گردن نهاد و خود را

در فضا رها کرد

با تبسمي

In "The King of Festivals" he writes about what it was like for Baha'is in his homeland during Ridvan: In the post-revolution Iran, where one always worried about wiretapping and "big brother" watching the activities of the community, the code word for the Festival of Ridvan, the holiest twelve days in the Baha'i Faith, was the "festival of flowers," or عید گل Such is how we observed the festival and expressed our well wishes to other believers in public or on the phone without drawing too much attention.

Home-visiting has special meaning for Baha'is, celebrated as it is in Ruhi Book 2, but home-visiting is also associated with the Naw-Ruz holiday celebrated by Iranians generally, as Nizam describes in his post "Deed-O-Bazdeed":

In Montreal, however, with a large Iranian and Baha'i community, one still finds a flavor of how paying visits to another was observed in Iran. Since Mr. and Mrs. Saririan have been through a trying and challenging year with his illness, the community felt that the Saririans get priority to be amongst the first to be visited. In a matter of moments, the Saririan home was filled with many cheerful souls and well-wishers who had come to brighten the day. [Left and right], you may find some pictures of did-o-bazdid a la Montreal!