Mona Tahiri

Mr. Muhammad Movahhed was the son of Mr. Muhammad `Alí Shaykh Movahhed and Ms. Zakiyyih Beládi. He was born in Shiraz in 1937 (1316 of the solar calendar). His father was a renowned cleric in Shiraz and taught at the Áqá Bábá Khán religious school in the city. He had several students. One of his wishes was that all his five male children received religious education.

Mr. Movahhed found access to Bahá’í writings at a library in Shiraz and was deeply attracted to them and the Bahá'í Faith as a result. After he declared his belief in Bahá’u’lláh, Mr. Movahhed wrote a letter to the Universal House of Justice and received a gracious answer from them. Mr. Movahhed had told his brother, Hasan, that it was his wish to have this letter with him at death. Later, he moved to the city of Shahre Ray near Tehran and began to teach at a religious school there. On the first Friday in September of 1965, he revealed a secret to his students and his brothers. His secret was that he had become of a follower of Bahá’u’lláh eight years previously. On that same night, some clerics as well as some of his students became determined to kill him. Mr. Movahhed decided to go to the city’s bazaar and spend the night under a bridge. He later decided to go back to Shiraz. His faith in Bahá’u’lláh was a devastating blow to the people in Shiraz who knew him. To protect him from harm, they decided to declare him an “invalid” and sent him to a mental hospital, where he was in custody for 95 days. His doctors, however, stated that he was in complete health, and he was thus released from the hospital and went to Tehran, where he started to study as well as arrange teaching classes.

In 1976, after seven years of waiting to get parental consent for marriage, Mr. Movahhed finally entered into wedlock with Ms. Núrí Ansárí. From this marriage came two sons, one of whom was born two months after his father was abducted.

In May of 1979, Mr. Movahhed was abducted by an unknown individual and never heard from again. For years, his mother used to say, “I wish my own body was cut into pieces and I hadn’t witnessed the loss of my son. Mohammad’s most distinguished quality was solving other peoples’ problems.

*Source*: Golestáneh, Máh-Mehr. *Parvazha va Yadegarha* (Flights and Memories). Supreme Publications, 1371 (1992).

Original Persian located at: //bahaimartyrs.blogspot.com/2008/08/blog-post...