Tahirih Born in 1817 in Qazvin, Iran, Tahirih was the daugh..

Tahirih Born in 1817 in Qazvin, Iran, Tahirih was the daughter of Molla Saleh, a liberal scholar and an influential priest of his province. Tahirih received the best education available at her time, and an education very unusual for a woman in those days. First taught by her father, later by a tutor, she studied theology, jurisprudence, and Persian and Arabic literature. Tahirih’s father often discussed religious issues with her, and allowed her participation, from behind a curtain, in his classes and debating sessions. In the society of mid 19thC Iran, any higher learning was reserved for men. Most women had no access to higher education and women were excluded from the public domains of discourse. Yet even after becoming a wife and mother, Tahirih busied herself in libraries and classes, with writing and public speaking. She challenged some of the most learned scholars of her time, carrying out lengthy conversations and in every instance defeating them. Her poetry, public lectures and intellectual debates are unparalleled by any woman in these regions even to this day. Tahirih’s keen knowledge and insight soon earned her a reputation throughout the country. After reading a book written by the Persian Prophet, The Bab she became a follower. She was the sole woman among the first eighteen disciples of the Bab and the only one never to me et him face to face, yet she soon became one of the most influential and controversial figures of that Faith. The Bab gave her the title, Tahirih, the pure one. She was venerated as a poetess; and named Kurratul’Ayn, the pupil of the eye. Wherever she went she attracted large audiences. Her beauty, joined with her eloquence, it is said, was bewitching. Her persuasion caused many to convert to Babism, despite the manifestly dangerous consequences of such a conversion. People claimed that Tahirih’s words cast a spell. The Cambridge orientalist E.G. Browne writes: ‘The appearance of such a woman as Kurratul’Ayn (Tahirih) is in any country and age a rare phenomenon, but in such a country as Persia it is a prodigy- nay, almost a miracle. Alike in virtue of her marvellous beauty, her rare intellectual gifts, her fervid eloquence, her fearless devotion, and her glorious martyrdom, she stands forth incomparable and immortal amidst her country-women. Had the Babi religion no other claim to greatness, this were sufficient – that it produced a heroine like Kurratul’Ayn.’ Influenced by the teachings of the Bab, she championed the cause of the emancipation of women. Unprecedented in an Islamic society, she took away her veil in a large assemblage of men, and declared the advent of a new age of equality and enlightenment. This act so startled and horrified the audience that the whole room was thrown into consternation. One man wanted to strike her with a sword, while another, ‘aghast and deranged at the sight, cut his throat with his own hands.’ Despite opposition by her family, arrest and imprisonment, she continued to propogate her faith and the cause of women. She was stoned in the streets, and exiled from town to town, threatened with death. Once she was arrested by government agents and had an audience with the King, Nasseral- Din Shah. Upon seeing her Nasseral- Din Shah is believed to have wanted to marry her, should she stop believing in and advocating the new faith. Her reply was a definitive, poetic, no! She was put under house arrest in the home of Tehran’s chief of police, and in August 1852, secretly executed. On the day of her death, she put on her very best robes as if she was going to a bridal party. Dressed in her best clothes, made up and perfumed, she was taken to a walled garden, strang led to death and thrown in a well, followed by a heap of rocks. She was only thirty-six years of age. ‘You can kill me if you like’, were her last words, ‘but you cannot stop the emancipation of women’. A collection of Tahirih’s poems was published for the first time more than a hundred years after her death. Expressions of mystical love and separation from ‘The Beloved’ dominate the poems. The themes are of love, union, and ecstasy. It is ultimately of divine love and an intense devotion to a divine manifestation she speaks. Her poetry passionately depicts the heights of mystical and spiritual experience. This short biography was compiled from various sources including a paper by Farzaneh Milani entitled ‘Becoming a presence- Tahereh Qorratol’Ayn’, the book by Martha Root, ‘Tahirih – the Pure One’, and ‘Memorials of the Faithful’ by Abdul’-Baha