Táhirih

Táhirih is the religious title of Fatima Baraghani (1814-1820, died 1852 – birth date uncertain, as birth records were destroyed at her execution), an influential poet and theologian of the Bábí faith and a revered example of courage in the struggle for women's rights.

Prior to becoming a Bábí

The daughter of a mulla, Táhirih grew up in Qazvin (near Tehran), where she married her cousin Muhammad ibn Muhammad Taqi at the age of thirteen (?). Having acquired a religious education from her father, she began a correspondence with leaders of the Shaykhi movement which flourished in the Shi'i shrine cities in Iraq. Ultimately she traveled there herself.

She is equally well-known under an alternate religious title "Qurrat al-Ayn," (translated as "Comfort of the Eyes" or "Solace of the Eyes"), given to her by the second Shaykhi leader, Siyyid Kázim of Rasht. After his death in 1844, she, through correspondence, found and accepted Ali Muhammad of Shiraz (called the Báb or "gateway" after a Shi'i theological concept), the founder of the Bábi Faith, as the Mahdi. She was the seventeenth disciple or "Letter of the Living" of the Báb, and the only woman in that group.

As a Bábí

Upon returning to Iran at her family's order, she separated informally (Enc. of Islam says "divorced") from her husband, whose family was hostile to the Báb and His mission, as well as her four children.

Conference of Badasht

After the Báb's arrest in 1848, Táhirih attended a conference of Bábi leaders in Badasht, largely persuading its participants of her radical view (relative to the Bábi movement) that the Báb's Revelation superseded previous provisions of Islamic law. She is perhaps best remembered for appearing in public without her veil in the course of this conference. Besides the obvious feminist interpretation, her act also suggests the abrogation of Islamic law for which she argued (and which its enemies thus came to describe as antinomian in character); her courageous act may also allude to a mystical "unveiling" of the godhead.

It was at the Badasht conference that she was given the title Táhirih (Bahá'í sources indicate by Bahá'u'lláh) which means "the Pure One"; possibly as a rebuke to her critics. The Báb later endorsed her use of it.

Death of Táhirih

One of her most notable quotes is her deathbed utterance, "You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women." This is widely described as apocryphal; a thorough study of the sources for her life has yet to appear. Also she has been used by many feminist groups for their cause and in that process, a lot of modern feminist thoughts seem to have been attributed to her in the form of myths and quotes.

With the virtual extermination of the Bábi movement in the early 1850's, Táhirih was martyred in her early to mid 30's in 1852 in the garden of Ilkhani in Tehran. (A prominent Bábí, and subsequently Bahá'í, historian cites the wife of an officer who had the chance to know her that she was strangled by a drunken officer of the government with her own veil which she had chosen for her anticipated martyrdom.)

Problems with sources

With the exception of an entry in the Encyclopedia of Islam (under "Kurrat al-'Ayn"), English-language sources are almost exclusively Bahá'í, or reliant on Bahá'í material. These consist of narrative accounts of her life (typically devotional in character) and, in a few cases, translations of poetry selections. None of her prose theological writings have yet been translated.

External links

• Translation of Táhirih's poetry to English by Martha Root
• Directory of Táhirih's Arabic and Persian writings at h-net
• Táhirih's biographical entry from Memorials of the Faithful by `Abdu'l-Bahá
• A translation by Juan Cole of one of Táhirih's prayers