Memoirs

Since the Islamic Revolution began in 1979, millions of Iranians have fled to Turkey seeking refuge from religious and political persecution. In 1988, I was one of them. For more than four decades, Baha'is in Iran have been stripped of all human rights. This is my story about what life was like living under Islamic rule. It's a story about determination, perseverance, and Faith. I was 25 when I fled Iran with two friends. We crossed the forbidding Zagros Mountains in the height of winter, seeking asylum in Turkey. More than a year later, I arrived in America, speaking little English, knowing no one, and understanding little about the country except what I gleaned from television.

One More Mountain is the inspirational true story of young man willing to risk it all and provides a never-before-seen look at what life in Iran is still like for those who have no power, no voice, and no freedoms.

Doris McKay became a Bahá’í in 1925 through the teaching efforts of Howard and Mabel Ives. This book tells the story of Doris and her husband Willard’s life as early American Bahá’ís, of their friendships with people such as the Ives, Grace and Harlan Ober, Louis Gregory, May Maxwell, Martha Root, Dorothy Baker, and others. It tells the story of the McKay’s work in the racial amity field and their eventual pioneering move to eastern Canada in the 1940s.

Doris tells her story with clear-sightedness, zest, and love. This book provides an intimate glimpse into the spiritual life of a dedicated Bahá’í teacher and the development of the Bahá’í Faith in America.

On a December day in 1973, Anisa Abdul-Razzaq Abbas heard a knock at the door of the Baghdad home she was visiting. She opened the door to greet two men from the Iraqi Al-Amn security force, who immediately placed her under arrest. Her crime: being a member of the Bahá’í Faith, a religious minority in her native Iraq.

Over the next six years, Anisa—along with other members of the Bahá’í community who were arrested at that time—would spend three years in Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison and a further three years in Al-Rashaad prison before her release in 1979. During her years of incarceration, Anisa would rely on her faith to meet the myriad challenges of prison life. Day after day, she and her fellow-prisoners experienced levels of cruelty and injustice that most would find unthinkable. Separated from her husband, who was being held in the men’s prison, and from her children who were without both parents, Anisa was sustained through her darkest days by the steadfast devotion and sacrificial love of her family, and by the strength and solidarity offered by her fellow Bahá’í prisoners.

Anisa’s story is one of patience, courage, and steadfastness in the face of religious prejudice and state-sponsored oppression, and it is a reminder to us all of the resilient strength of the human spirit.

A compilation of stories by American Indians who are members of the Bahá’í Faith, written in their own words. Being free to write and share in their own words and formats, seven American Indian Bahá’ís tell the story of their backgrounds, how they became Bahá’ís, their life adventures, and how this Faith works for them. These stories are meant to show the unique personal stories of Bahá’ís coming from American Indian backgrounds, including the many challenges and joys they’ve faced when accepting and integrating a new religion into their traditional cultural and spiritual beliefs and practices.

Arising is the autobiography of Kevin Locke—a member of the Lakota tribe and a renowned hoop dancer, flutist, and storyteller—who has traveled the world as a performer and a promoter of principles such as the oneness of humankind.

Twigs of a Family Tree is a story about faith. The four chapters of this book, written by four different individuals, are connected through the bonds of spiritual ties. They make up a spiritual family, having learned of or taught the Baha'i Faith to each other. This book is for anyone who knows the path is not always straight and smooth. It is meant to encourage and inspire, and to assure others that they are not alone in their questions and spiritual tests.