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From the upcoming book, 'Hosts of the Seen and the Unseen' by Shirin Sabri, and the story, 'A Lioness in Tihran': A wise Mulla in Isfahan, Persia, who was attracted to the teachings of the Faith of the Bab (forerunner of Baha'u'llah) in his youth, allowed his daughter, Fa'izih, to be educated and become fully literate and able to express herself fluently. She recognized the urgent need for the education of women and girls in Persia, This was in the early 1900's, and she and some Baha'i women from America helped establish some of the first schools for girls, as well as educating women of all backgrounds. One of the women was an American doctor who came to work in the hospital in Tihran, and this was the first time the women of Tihran had access to proper medical care.

Sue Podger is descended from the early Dutch settlers of the Cape of Good Hope, known as Afrikaners. She is the first of this people to become a Baha'i and her maiden surname is Hofmeyr. She was trained at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town. An accomplished watercolourist, she uses a range of styles to portray a sensitive and accurate picture of the years when Baha'u'llah was amongst us. The images of one set of her paintings shown on this website were painted for a hard cover book, 'The Incomparable Friend', a history of the life of Baha'u'llah told in stories, which sold out and was out of print for some years. Shirin Sabri, it's author, and Sue, wishing to see it more widely available, have published it as a free...