Here is the story of a remarkable person in the history of our Faith.

Once upon a time, in one of the cities of Persia, in the last century, a little girl was born into a very prominent family of religious leaders. Her father was a Mujtahid, which means the highest rank of Islamic clergy. This girl had remarkable talent and enthusiasm in acquiring knowledge. She would often go to her father’s library and stare at the pages of the books. As you know, at that time, practically everywhere in the world, and in particular in the darkest East, girls were not allowed to be educated. And yet, despite this, this girl’s enthusiasm was so great that one day she went into her father’s library and took out the Qur’an, and when her father entered, she asked him: “Do you want me to read to you father?” Then with the book open before her, nodding her head in imitation of her father when he read the Qur’an, she began to tell the story of the mermaids, as of course she didn’t know how to read. When her father saw this, he said that he would teach her how to read the Qur’an. He therefore taught her reading and writing. At the age of fourteen, she knew all the Qur’an off by heart. She would often sit behind the curtain and listen to her father’s sermons. She was so interested in acquiring knowledge that by the time she was a young girl, she had read all of the books that were to be found not only in her father’s library, but also in the whole city of Qazvin.

When she was only ten years old, one day, her mother gave her a long black chadur, and a white veil to put in front of her face, and from then on, she was to wear that veil wherever she would go, outside the home and in front of those who were not immediate family. When she was a teenager, she was told one day that she was to marry her cousin, who was called Muhammed. On hearing this news she froze, because she didn’t like him, but she had no choice. This was the law of life, just as birth and death. All teenage girls had to be married off to whomsoever the family had chosen for them.

So then she had to go across to her husband’s home, which was across the road, and she spent some very unhappy years there. She had two sons. One day her husband came back home and saw that she was very happy. He thought her happiness was because of the new diamond necklace that he had bought her. He could not understand that her happiness was because of a beautiful new poem she had just composed.

Tahirih (the title given to this girl later by Bahá’u’lláh, meaning the Pure) became so unhappy for all those empty years that she had spent in her husband’s home, that she decided to go back to her father’s house. There she told him of the sadness and the suffering that she had gone through over the past few years. Her father allowed her to stay in his house again.

Again she would sit behind the curtain and listen to her father’s sermons and occasionally, take part in them. She wrote a sermon for her father, which became his best-known sermon on the theme of God’s forgiveness.

One day, her father wrote a certificate and signed it and gave it to her. This was a certificate of the highest degree of Islamic Scholarship. He then said to his daughter: “It’s quite rare in the history of Iran for a woman to get a certificate of Ijtihad. You know what may happen if someone finds out about this.” Tahirih thanked her father, read the certificate several times and then burned it.

Now by this time, Tahirih had become quite famous in many areas in Iran, because of her beautiful poetry. And yet this did not satisfy her soul. She knew that she was looking for something new and different. She was as lonely as ever, because she had been forced to return to her husband, whom she immensely disliked. She had another daughter and her husband took all three children away from her.

One day, in the midst of all this suffering, she met up with one of her cousins, who told her for the first time about the writings of Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsa’I and showed her one of his books. Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kazim were the two forerunners of the Báb who prepared the people for the coming of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. Despite all the dangers involved in being found out, she hid the book beneath her chadur and took it back to her home and read it. This was a moment of enlightenment for her, because she realized that everything that was written in that book was completely new and logical. Here was an interpretation of the Writings and traditions of Islam, such as she had never experienced before. She immediately recognized the truth in these writings.

By this time Shaykh Ahmad had passed away and Siyyid Kazim was his successor. Having read all of their books, she wrote a letter to Siyyid Kazim, explaining her beliefs and understanding of their teachings. Siyyid Kazim was so impressed by the depth of her knowledge and her true comprehension of these new teachings, that in his reply to her, he confirmed that she had, indeed, truly understood their meanings. He conferred upon her the title Qurratu’l-Ayn, which means the Solace of the Eye.

Tahirih was so enthused by Siyyid Kazim’s teachings that she decided to go to Karbila, which is one of the great holy cities of Islam, particularly of Shi’a Islam, where Siyyid Kazim was residing, in order to meet him. So she left home and set out on the journey towards Karbila. When she reached Karbila she discovered that, unfortunately, just a few days earlier, Siyyid Kazim had passed away. Tahirih decided to stay on in that city for a while. One night, she had a very significant dream. She dreamt of a heavenly young man who was wearing a green turban and a green shawl, which were signs of descent from the holy family of the Prophet Mohammad. This young man was standing there, between heaven and earth, with his arms outstretched and was reciting some beautiful verses. At this point, Tahirih woke up. She remembered the verses and immediately wrote them down, because she realized that the truth she was searching for, were embodied in that holy Person and in those verses.

After a short time, one of the Bábis came to Karbila and showed her the Writings of the Báb. As soon as her eyes fell upon those verses she recognized that they were exactly the same verses as she had dreamt of. So without even seeing the Báb in person, she unhesitatingly believed in Him. Indeed, Tahirih became one of the first 18 disciples of the Báb called the Letters of the Livings and the only woman among them.

She stayed on in Karbila for some time and started to spread the new Faith and the advent of the Promised One to the great secular and religious leaders of that city.

Her activities aroused a great deal of animosity and opposition from the religious leaders. She eventually had to leave Karbila and go to Baghdad. Despite this great opposition, she continued fearlessly, with tremendous courage and audacity, to proclaim the new Faith. Her strength of argument, her eloquence was such that no one was able to defeat her. Abdu’l-Bahá says that “in eloquence she was the calamity of the age and in ratiocination the trouble of the world”.

She would sit behind a curtain - all veiled, and the learned men - the ulama - would sit on the other side of the curtain. She would argue for the truth of the Cause of the Báb so eloquently, so beautifully, so powerfully, that there would be no chance left for any of the ulama and they would not even dare to answer back.

In Baghdad, she continued to teach the Faith, but eventually had to return to Persia because of rising opposition. On her way to Iran, in every town that she stopped at, many thousands became believers, as she would organize public meetings and challenge the clergy to accept the New Day of God. When she reached Qazvin, her husband sent a message to her, asking her to return home, saying how much he loved her and that he would look after her. In reply she sent a message back to him, stating that she would never return to him, and that if he really loved her, he would have come with her and held the reins of her horse and walked by her side, to proclaim the message of the Promised One to all the land. But he did not do this and was not going to do this, and therefore, he was opposing the Faith of God, so she never wanted to see him again.

This type of action was really unprecedented in Persia at that time. No woman could possibly leave her home or her husband like this - she wouldn’t dare. And yet, Tahirih continued to teach the Faith from town to town. This led, eventually, to her being imprisoned several times. Once she was imprisoned in her own town. And as this happened, she said to the prison guard: “If my Faith is true, then you will see that before the end of nine days I will be released from this prison.” Bahá’u’lláh organized for Tahirih to be released from that prison, very secretly. It really was quite an adventure!

Now, some time later, we come to an event that signalizes the climax of Tahirih’s earthly career. This was at the time when the Báb was imprisoned in the fortress of Mah-Ku, in the northern mountains in Azerbaijan, which was very cold. The authorities hoped this would finally quench the light of the Báb’s Revelation. The Báb instructed a conference to be organised, and Bahá’u’lláh convened it. Bahá’u’lláh gathered the believers, including Quddus and Tahirih, in a hamlet called Badasht, where He hired three beautiful gardens: one for Himself, one for Tahirih and one for Quddus. This gathering was, probably, the first seminar, the first conference in Bábi-Bahá’í history and it was designed to achieve a certain aim: On the surface, it was supposed to result in finding a way of releasing the Báb from prison. However, beneath the surface, deep down, the main reason was to proclaim that a new age had dawned. So remember that this is a drama unfolding, a show that Bahá’u’lláh was orchestrating, in order to get across some very important principles of the new Faith. And it went like this:

One day, Bahá’u’lláh was ill, lying in His bed. All the believers had gathered around Him. Now Quddus came to this gathering, and he demanded that Tahirih should come there. So, he sent a messenger - one of the attendants of Tahirih - to go to her garden and bring her to that gathering. When the messenger returned to the gathering, he said that Tahirih had refused to come. On hearing this, Quddus became apparently very angry, and this messenger said that he would not go back to Tahirih even if he were to be beheaded.

Quddus, took his sword out of its sheath and was preparing to bring down the sword and strike at the head of the messenger, when suddenly, Tahirih arrived at the gathering - unveiled - to the surprise of everyone. She came adorned and without a veil, reciting in the most melodious tones verses from the Qur’an and from the Writings, saying that she was the Trumpet Blast that the Qur’an had foretold; that she was the one, who was ushering in a new era; she was the one, who was to mark the end of one Dispensation, the Islamic Dispensation, and the beginning of another Dispensation - the Babi Dispensation. At that time, many of the early believers still thought that the Báb’s advent was simply a continuation of the old Islamic Teachings; that the Báb was simply the Qaim, the Twelfth Imam or the Mahdi, promised by Islamic tradition. So He was to continue the same Teachings of Islam, and simply make them world-wide. Whereas Tahirih announced that this was not the case. She announced that the Bábi Dispensation was entirely new, it was a separate, an independent Religion of God, which was to usher in a new era of enlightenment, with new Teachings and principles, for a new civilization, and that all the ties with the past had to be broken at this stage.

Tahirih’s appearance was so dramatic, that the believers, all of whom were male, were simply shocked to the depth of their beings. This shock was so great, that a number of them simply could not take it. One of the believers present is reported to have cut his throat with his own hands, and run out of the gathering bleeding. Several others simply left the meeting and the Faith. Only those who could see the purpose behind it and who passed this great test stayed behind.

Bahá’u’lláh, who had orchestrated this major event Himself, was, of course, looking serenely at the whole scene. After this event, the friends again spread around, all over Iran and continued to teach the Faith.

Now, Tahirih also went towards Tehran and continued to teach the Faith there, but she became so famous everywhere that eventually she was arrested and imprisoned in the house of the chief of police (Kalantar) of Tehran. Even when she was in prison, she continued to correspond with the believers outside using interesting ways. Some Bábi women would dress up as servants, or as people selling vegetables. They would hide letters in packages containing vegetables, and would, in this way, deliver them to the house of the Kalantar where she was imprisoned. Tahirih, using screws and sometimes her own finger and the juice of the vegetables, would write replies on the wrappings of the vegetables, and throw them out of the window, where the Bábi women would collect these replies and take them to the intended persons. This continued for some months. Her fame had become so great, that the Shah of Iran decided that he wanted to meet her, face to face, to see what kind of a prodigy she really was. And so he ordered that she be brought to his presence. And when she came there, he immediately fell in love with her. She was not only, as the western historians also remark, a prodigy of intelligence, but also of beauty. She was extremely beautiful. The king was so impressed by her that he proposed to her, saying that he would make her the Queen of the whole of Persia, with the one proviso that she simply renounced her Faith. Tahirih, in reply to this proposal of the Shah, wrote a very beautiful poem, finishing like this:

“Kingdom, wealth and sovereignty be for thee,

Wandering, a dervish’s life and calamity be for me;

If that life is good, let it be for thee,

And if this life is bad, I long for it, let it be for me”

The king, had never seen these qualities in any of his wives before (and he had several wives). So this reply infuriated him, and when the priests sentenced Tahirih to death, he did not stop them. It was at this time, that the Kalantar said to her, that if she did not recant her Faith, then she would be martyred. Tahirih replied that she was not afraid of anything; in fact, her greatest happiness would be to give her life for her Beloved.

Shortly afterwards, one night, the wife of the Kalantar saw that Tahirih put on a very beautiful white silk dress and adorned herself, and filled the whole room with the perfume of roses. She told the wife of Kalantar that that night was the night of her greatest happiness - the night when she will be reunited with her Best Beloved. So she had to prepare herself for it. She was not going to eat or drink anything from that moment on. This was the last night, that they were going to meet with each other, and that she should not be unhappy, but be very happy and always remember her.

She then locked herself in her room, and fasted, and prayed. In the middle of the night, a few guards came and took her to a garden outside of the town. As they were approaching the garden, they heard the laughter of a few drunken generals. And as they approached them, their leader said, “Don’t bother us with this woman! Just go and suffocate her, and throw her in the well.”

Now, Tahirih clearly had had a premonition of what was going to happen, and was fully prepared for this event. Because when they took her to the well, she gave them a silk handkerchief which she had already prepared for this purpose. After they strangled her, they threw her lovely body into the well and covered it with stones and gravel.

Before she was martyred, she made a remarkable statement to the executioner: “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.” This is very interesting. Why should she have said such a thing? Surely, a lot of people would have said, ‘Why didn’t she recant her Faith?’ She was still very young - only in her early thirties. She could have lived a normal life. She could have continued to teach the people and converted thousands upon thousands of people into the Faith and shown them the new way. She could have started a great women’s movement in Persia and even in the whole of the Middle East. And she could have written so many books and so many poems, that we could enjoy even now. So, why is it that she said: “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women”. We can only understand the real reason behind this statement and her martyrdom, and, indeed, the martyrdom of all the of the faithful souls, only if we look at the sacred Writings of Bahá’u’lláh on the nature of life after death, and of the power and the influence that the souls of true believers exert in all the worlds of God, including, of course, this physical world.

Bahá’u’lláh, in Gleanings 81 and 82 says:“The light which these souls radiate is responsible for the progress of the world and the advancement of its peoples”. He says, that these souls, “are like unto leaven which leaveneth the world of being, and constitute the animating force through which the arts and wonders of the world are made manifest.” He says: “All things must needs have a cause, a motive power, an animating principle” and then He makes this tremendous statement, that “These souls and symbols of detachment have provided, and will continue to provide, the supreme moving impulse in the world of being” and that “all the worlds which the Almighty hath created can benefit” through them.

In fact, what these statements imply is that martyrdom is just the beginning of the exertion of the true believer’s real influence, which is vastly multiplied compared to what it could ever have been on this mortal plane. Here, on this plane, Tahirih had no power. She was a women; she was hindered in all her efforts, at every step of the way. And she could not express fully her will power to do everything that she could have done. So what she meant was: “You can kill me as soon as you like, but this is not the end of me, neither the end of my influence, nor the end of my will power. No, absolutely not! I will take forward the cause of the emancipation of women. I am going to work hard for it, from the next world, as soon as I get killed by you and finally released from this bondage. My powers are going to be manifold. The light which I will radiate will be so great, that I will be able to influence generations of women yet unborn all over the world, so that they will work for the emancipation of women. I shall inspire them, using all these tremendous powers, which God will endow me in the next world. Neither you nor anybody else can possibly hinder this process.”

Of course, Tahirih has, is, and will be carrying forward this great mission: the promotion of the emancipation of women, and, eventually the establishment of universal peace, which is closely linked to the rise of women against war.

In conclusion, the soul of man that has started its process of preparation in this world, and has linked itself to its Creator through the umbilical cord (using the analogy of the embryo), once it is born into the next world, shall continue to express its potentialities in an unimaginably greater way, compared to what is was capable of achieving in this life. So, such a soul will exercise its power of free will, its love, its power of creativity, its knowledge, and all the other virtues of humanity to a much greater degree and for the benefit of all the worlds which the Almighty has created forever more.