Visit with Mohebat & Helen Aghahi

After our visit with Razi Ferisdani (see previous post) we stopped by to visit Mohebat and Helen. For those of you who know Persians, it's impossible to just visit and run! We were graciously invited to stay for dinner (we should have guessed that it would be prepared in full from scratch and include all sorts of exotic stuff!).

Anyway it was a very special treat to visit with them and to meet as well Mohebat's father, Mohammad Aghahi, who is well over 90 years old. He is in very good health but we needed to have Mohebat translate for us for any conversation.

This amazing man was the caretaker and gardener of the Baha'i Center in Teheran for many years, including during the revolution in 1979. This building, we learned, was very large and had an auditorium which could seat hundreds of people. During our visit, little by little, since this man is very humble and quiet, we were able to find out from him about some of his experiences there. When the building was taken over by the revolutionaries, at one point some soldiers started turning on all the lights (which were quite powerful and illuminated all the extensive grounds in and around the building). Mr. Aghahi tried to warn them that by turning all the lights on it would overload the circuits and could damage the system. They ignored him and left the lights burning. The system soon blew out, as he had predicted, and they held him responsible for what happened (assuming that he had sabotaged something). So, as a punishment they tied his feet and submerged him in the building's cistern, head first! The poor man almost drowned! Soon, the cause of the problem was discovered and he was released.

This building, unlike many of the Baha'i holy places in Iran, was not destroyed, nor even damaged, apparently. It has been turned into a university.

We also learned that Mr. Aghahi was in Teheran when the Tarbiyat School for boys was operating. Since I had read in Houri Skuce's book, "A Radiant Gem" (which is the story of her grandfather, Jinab-i-Fadil-Shirazi--known as Fadil, pronounced "Fazel"), that her grandfather was one of the early teachers at this school, and was wondering if Mr. Aghahi had known him.

Not only did he remember Jinab-i-Fadil, but he also remembered future Hands of the Cause, Mr. Faizi and Mr. Ali Muhammad Varqa, who studied under this great teacher at the school.

(BTW, I can highly recommend your reading Houri's book. It is loaded with so much of the early history, and her grandfather was an amazing person who was one of the most outstanding scholars of his time.)

It was a real honor to be able to sit at the dinner table with this family!

Here's a photo of part of the guests present (unfortunately, I forgot to get the camera out in time to include Heshmat and Zarrin Aghahi before they had to return home).
From left: Mohebat, Alan, Vicky, Helen, Marco and Mr. Aghahi: