Anisa Abdul-Razzaq Abbas

Anisa Abbas was born on May 16, 1925 in Baghdad, Iraq. She was the oldest child of Abdul-Razzaq Abbas and Zakiya Jameel. As a young woman, she was independent-minded and fearless, especially for a woman of her time. In the 1940s, she went to Alexandria, Egypt, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Psychology. While in Egypt, she was involved in numerous Bahá’í activities and was elected to the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Alexandria on April 21, 1951. She was among the first group of women to be elected to various Local Spiritual Assemblies in Egypt. While there, she met her future husband, Siddiq ‘Abdu’l-Majid Sulaiman, also of Iraq, whom she married after her return to Baghdad in 1952, and they had three children together. Anisa worked as a high school teacher for most of her professional life. Her Bahá’í activities in Iraq included service on the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Baghdad. She also taught children classes and composed Bahá’í songs for children. As a prominent Bahá’í in Iraq, she was one of a large group sent to prison in the 1970s, where she was incarcerated for nearly six years. She and her husband Siddiq were sentenced to life in prison, and they represented the only Bahá’í family in which both parents were incarcerated. Her time in prison was, for her, a badge of glory. She came to the United States in 1990 and lived in New Hampshire with her family until she departed this earthly life on July 13, 2011.