AN UNCOMMON LIFE

August 8, 1929, saw the birth of a truly remarkable Individual. Although Zhinus was born into an exceptional Persian family that was highly educated, forward thinking and intellectual, she was destined to outshine everyone. She belongs to an elite group of select few who have left their mark on the country, its sciences, and its people.

She graduated from Tehran University with a Bachelor’s and then a Master’s of Science degree in physics, becoming the first female graduate student in Iran.  Subsequently, she got involved in meteorology and atmospheric research and spent the next few decades building an organization that would rival most technologically advanced countries. She represented Iran in many international meetings and published a record of the climate of the country in a comprehensive book called “The Climate Atlas of Iran.” She directed and led the research for this momentous publication.  Her reputation for undeviating honesty, keen intelligence, visionary planning and hard work eventually made her the director of the organization with several thousand employees. She never underestimated the value of education, starting and becoming the first director of a postgraduate meteorologic college.  Zhinus turned her own experience with gender-based prejudice into a desire for educating and training women and promoted advanced learning among Iranian women.

Her passion for serving humanity found its expression with service as a Bahá’í. She became involved at the local and then the national Bahá’í administration. Because of her keen interest in advancement of women, she and her friends travelled extensively throughout the country helping with education of women and putting together programs, classes and training sessions for both men and women to help achieve equality. She was, as such, very much loved across the land.

After the Islamic revolution, all her Bahá’í activities became infused with a much higher level of risk. She had a very well-known national profile and was a high-ranking officer of the Bahá’í Community. Despite all of this, she traveled extensively throughout the country, and usually using public transportation. She would meet with friends around the country, encourage them, give them moral support, bring news to them and take news and information back to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iran (the national governing body). In the middle of this, her husband, who was a member of that National Assembly was abducted by the government with all its other members, never to be found again. She then became a member of the subsequent National Assembly, and this heavy task was added to her growing duties. This she did without any complaint. In her letters and phone calls, she would express a sense of gratitude for being able to serve and a deep feeling of contentment.

During this time there was heavy fighting between Iran and Iraq. Food and gasoline were in short supply and people were given ration cards. Many sent their own gasoline coupons to her to enable her to travel and meet friends. It was as if the whole country wanted her to be able to do what she did. And off she went.

Zhinus was extremely beautiful and like a queen in her manners and presence. You were automatically drawn to her, you wanted to be near her, to grab her attention. And unlike many, her physical beauty made her patient and kind. She was kind beyond belief and genuinely cared about anyone who crossed her path, being at ease with everyone on the planet without regard for rank, education, status or financial power. She never ever showed irritation or impatience and made everyone feel special.

Another of the characteristics of Zhinus was her unflappable sense of calm even when confronted with difficulties of monumental proportion.  She displayed such strength and fortitude that was legendary, and people knew this. They would leave all their issues and problems and situations and difficulties with her, and she would listen, empathize, make suggestions and do anything within her power to solve their problems. As the persecution under the Islamic Republic increased in intensity, the stakes got higher.  Yet, everyone counted on her keen wisdom, levelheaded judgment and an unmatched perspective. And she did all of this without ever compromising with what she felt were the highest standards of ethics and behavior.

Another lesson learned from Zhinus is about “power.” She was probably one of the most powerful women in the country, but she never came across as powerful in a traditional (often male dominated) sense. She directed, orchestrated, mobilized and led large groups of people of varying degrees of expertise and knowledge. She had an extremely clear sense of direction about her projects and goals. She would freely consult and seek others’ opinions and ideas. But she she did this with such kindness and gentleness and with her beautiful smile on her face that everyone followed.

She missed her children, and she missed them terribly. In her letters, despite the strength, courage and dedication of this unique woman to serve her country and people, despite the feelings of gladness and serenity with which she worked, woven throughout you see evidence of a mother missing her children and being worried about an abducted husband. Maybe that is what made her so amazing. She was this superwoman of extraordinary strength but with deep emotions, real human ones inside.

On her last phone call, her daughter Mona told her about her dream of Zhinus as a young woman.  Zhinus correctly interpreted this as her time on this planet was coming to an end. The day after this phone call she and her colleagues were arrested by the Revolutionary Guards and, two weeks later, put to death.

Zhinus Nemat Mahmoudi, even though seemingly a product of a backward, prejudiced and violent country, shines brightly as an incredible beacon of light shedding her luster on that repressive and oppressive land and its peoples. Despite being constantly under attack for her ideas, for her belief system, her intelligence and integrity and her gender, she nevertheless spent the days of her life serving that country and its people. She worked to bring a better life, a more open mindset and a kinder and gentler vision to society. It is ironic that in many countries around the globe, she would have been celebrated and praised and appreciated, and in Iran, precisely for these reasons, she was killed.

Houshang Mahmoudi was truly a remarkable Renaissance man. He was born on 24 January 1927, the third son, in a country notable for its backwardness, bigotry, deeply ingrained prejudices, and ignorance, with little value for education, cultural and artistic expressions.  In many ways, Houshang’s life was spent steadfastly battling these falsehoods. 

Houshang grew up with a deep love and yearning for the spirituality he found in the Bahá’í Faith and Its Writings.  In his youth, he invented a secret language and script to write various Bahá’í Writings so he could carry them with himself to school, avoiding the risk of being found out and receiving a thorough beating at the hand of fanatical Muslim teachers.

As a young man, he fell deeply in love with Zhinus, a love that he would often talk about throughout his life. They had such a reciprocal relationship with each other.  Without Zhinus, there would be no Houshang Mahmoudi.  Likewise, Zhinus Mahmoudi would have had a near impossible time scaling the incredible heights she did without having Houshang.  At the beginning, they struggled financially.  Zhinus was studying physics and Houshang was studying law but on top of his studies, he found a job at a factory to support them, some 15-20 km away from where they lived.  He biked there and back every day. Here is a Middle Eastern man breaking all those centuries worth of barriers and prejudices, promoting the education and advancement of his wife. And he did this with characteristic ease all his life.

He was creative beyond bounds, and because he was also not moderate in anything, this combination made him the busiest person around.  At one point he had FOUR jobs.  He lived the equivalent of ten lives in his allotted time on this earth as if he knew that his time would be shorter than many.  He had no unused time. He drove fast and even walked very fast. Despite not having a second to breathe, he wrote poetry, keeping a notebook with him in his car where he would add lines to it when stopped at a red light. This volume of poems was then named “Behind the Red Light.”

One of his admirable qualities is that he never gave up learning.  If a skill was needed to help him achieve what he needed, he learned it. He was also the ever consummate teacher and trainer of the next generation.  He was generous to a fault and had so little care for material existence. He never put himself at the center of anything, including material wealth.  He did not want anything for himself even in death. 

He started a progressive elementary school with a Muslim partner because as a Bahá’í he was not allowed a license to own and operate a school. He was one of the cofounders of the first television station in Iran and by necessity, did everything there. Before Mr. Rogers in the west, he started a famous child-centered educational TV program where he would address them as “my dear children” and call them affectionate terms like “our beautiful saplings.” In a country where children were oppressed, ignored and often abused, this was revolutionary. He showed them love and attention and highlighted the importance of educating and training future generations. There is an entire generation of Iranian children who grew up with him and went to bed with his voice, calling him “Father dearest.”

He started a documentary film company recording developing infrastructure across the country, but his seminal contribution came with the filming of Bahá’í holy sites in Iran, such as the House of the Báb, the House of Bahá’u’lláh and the Síyáh Chál. As the director of the audiovisual department of the Iranian National Assembly, he oversaw the production and distribution of audiocassettes with Bahá’í chants (often his voice and other famous voices), readings, lectures, educational materials, letters and directives from Bahá’í Administration.  Thousands of copies of these cassettes were then prepared and distributed around the country.   After the Islamic Revolution the copying process became fraught with danger and had to be done in secret, but the tapes became a source of connection and inspiration among the Bahá’ís of the country, helping them stay steadfast and connected. 

He was a gifted writer and historian. He had written tens of thousands of pages on diverse topics and in various formats so that his right thumb was permanently curved backwards from the constant pressure of the pen. His handwriting though was exceptionally exquisite and beautiful.

His seminal work he wrote for the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the Bahá’í Faith.  He was in love with the unique and magnanimous person of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and for him everything was about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The title of this comprehensive two-volume book is characteristically self-effacing.  He called it “A Few Notes about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.” He was finishing a four-volume book on the history of the persecution of the beleaguered Bahá’í community of Iran when he himself fell a victim to these.

Houshang was known for the depth and breadth of his emotions. At any gathering, you would find people circling around him to hear his jokes and be entertained with his endless wit and humor. He laughed with his whole body. He would crack jokes and poke fun at everything, but he saved his sharpest wit for those who were haughty and arrogant. He made it a mission to go out of his way to deflate these.

His powerful voice was one of his most distinguishing features. It was warm and inviting and had such depth that it would penetrate one’s soul.  It appealed to everyone. When he would get excited, his voice would rise and fill the room to the point of causing the walls, windows and doors to vibrate. Being a quintessential historian of the Bahá’í Faith, he would give lectures and share moving stories about early Bahá’í history only to pause to sob about a sad or moving part.  Obviously, the audience often joined in.

Houshang served on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iran and would pen letters and statements in defense of the Bahá’ís.  After his death, Zhinus would write, “His intense emotions when expressing the injustices and describing the grandeur of the Faith cried out from the pages of the letters and statements of the Assembly in such wise that the oppressed friends devoured these words, passing them from hand to hand and be comforted, having found their own hearts’ hidden cries in them.”

He wanted even his burial place to be unknown, he had so little interest in self.  A few years earlier, he had prayed for divine assistance that he would be the first to go because he did not want to see anyone he loved go before him. It surprised no one that this is exactly what he did.