A female figure who asserted agency at the dawn of modernity in Iran

What is it about?

This article creates a religious map of early nineteenth century Qazvin. It lays the background for the early life and education of the Babi poet and heroine Tahirih Qurrat al-Ayn. Nineteenth-Century Qazvin was a maelstrom of religious controversy, contention and even violence involving Uṣūlīs, Akhbārīs, Shaykhīs, Babis, and Baha'is. The central figure for much of this conflict was Tahirih Qurrat al-ʿAyn, the daughter of an Uṣūlī scholar, who became a Shaykhī and then a Babi. This article will construct a map of the religious geography of Qazvin when Tahirih was growing up and look at the circle of women around her and how she interacted with them. Although she herself was killed in 1852, the impact that she had on the women of the city had a lasting direct effect to the end of the nineteenth century. Her effect on the women of Iran and throughout the world continues up to the present time. Her individualism marks the dawning of modernism in Iran.

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Why is it important?

The background of an important figure in the Iranian and world feminist movement and in the history of the Baha'i Faith

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