Images International

User menu

Images International

Archival Collection of Talks on Various Bahá'í Subjects

Prof. August Forel in Defense of the Persecuted Persian Baha’is in 1925-1927

1983

This paper is part of a doctoral thesis John Paul Vader wrote in 1981 for the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. It is being read by May Hofman Ballerio. It was quite unusual for someone earning a medical degree at a French university to write about the persecutions of the Baha’is of Iran from the perspective of one of its most celebrated Swiss scientists, Dr. August Forel (1848-1931). Dr. Forel was honored with one of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s weightiest Tablets. In the 1920s there was a wave of persecutions against the Baha’is. Dr. Forel was one of those who wrote in defense of the Baha’is of Iran. Forel was also in communication with Shoghi Effendi who refered to Forel as a "co-worker" and encouraged him to write to German and Swiss newspapers in the defense of the Faith in its cradle. This—to his everlasting credit—he did.