- 1923-00-00 — After the passing of his wife, the eldest daughter and son-in-law of Mr. Uskuli arrived in Shanghai as pioneers. Also arriving were his mother, Sarah Khanum and his two younger daughters Rohani (Rawhaniyyih), and Jalalia (Jalaliyyih) as well as his son Goudrat (Qudrat). In 1934 these three younger children, accompanied by their grandmother, left to study at the American University at Beirut. Ridvaniyyih and 'Ali-Muhammad Suleimani returned to Iran in August of 1950 due to the difficult conditions in China at the time. [PH39; Video Early history of the Bahá'í Faith in China 7 min 57 sec]
- 2024-11-28 — The United Nations Forum on Minority Issues, part of the UN Human Rights Council session running in Geneva, was criticized by UN member states after the candidacy of Diane Ala'i was blocked from becoming chair. Nominations for the Forum chair rotate across different UN member states groupings and are decided by the president of the Human Rights Council. The decision to bar her was influenced by the Iranian government. The move provoked sharp criticism from UN members and human rights advocates for barring a qualified member of a minority from chairing deliberations concerning minorities.
Ala’i was eminently qualified for the task. She is a human rights expert with more than 35 years of experience across the UN system and human rights mechanisms. She served as representative of the Bahá'í International Community to the UN in Geneva for 30 years, retiring in 2022, and was nominated as chair by the non-governmental Minority Rights Group. Her candidacy was also supported by several governments, including Austria, France, Switzerland, and at later stages of the selection process by Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. [IranWire 29Jan2024]
Roya Boroumand, a prominent Iranian human rights activist and the Executive Director of Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran commented saying, “It is simply unacceptable that one of the worst human rights abusers in the world is allowed to decide who the UN Human Rights Council, a body mandated to fight against discrimination and intolerance, can nominate.” Boroumand added that Iran’s government chose to persecute minorities such as Bahá'ís “rather than addressing the root causes of Iranians turning away from Islam.”
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