Chronology of the Bahá'í Faith

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Date 1988-0, descending — sort earliest first

date event tags firsts
1988 24 – 25 Sep The first annual Bahá'í Studies Conference of Spain was held in Barcelona. [BINS192:5] Bahá'í studies; Conferences, Bahá'í; Conferences, Other; - First conferences; Barcelona, Spain; Spain first annual Bahá’í Studies Conference of Spain
1988 24 Sep The six-week Manicaland Teaching Campaign was launched in Zimbabwe and reported 166 enrolments in the first three weeks. [BINS188:8] Zimbabwe
1988 10 Sep A three-month teaching project was launched in Colombia, resulting in 1,245 people becoming Bahá'ís. [BINS193:1] Colombia
1988 Sep A five-day teaching project in the Lake Titicaca region of Peru enrolled 738 youth and 1,026 adults, almost half of whom were women. [BINS184:10]
  • A later report gave the figure as over 2,000. [BINS185:8]
    		•  Lake Titicaca, Peru; Peru
    1988 Sep An intensive teaching campaign in Kenya enrolled 448 new Bahá'ís. [BINS184:8] Kenya
    1988 Sep A teaching project in Maddhya Pradesh, India, enrolled 20,000 new Bahá'ís in Morena District. [BINS185:4] Mass conversion; Madhya Pradesh, India; India
    1988 3 – 7 Aug The first Iberian Youth Conference was held in Lisbon, attended by 120 Bahá'ís from nine European countries. [BINS181:6] Conferences, Bahá'í; Conferences, Youth; - Conferences, International; Youth; Lisbon; Portugal; Europe first Iberian Youth Conference
    1988 Aug A 20-day teaching project in Coro, Falcon State, Venezuela, enrolled 120 people in the first two days. [BINS182:7] Falcón, Venezuela; Venezuela
    1988 Jul - Aug Over 500 people became Bahá'ís in Liberia. [BINS184:8] Liberia
    1980-1988 The paper, ‌Iranian Baha'is and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) was presented by Dr Kamali Sarvestani at the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association on November 4th, 2023. The study examines the ‌Iranian Bahá'ís engagement in the Iran-Iraq War.

    An abstract can be found at myMESA.

    		Persecution, Iran; Iran; Iraq
    1988 26 Jul In the final phases of the Iran-Iraq war Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini felt that defeat was imminent and decided to take his revenge on the political prisoners. He issued fatwas ordering the execution of anyone who had not "repented" and who was not willing to collaborate entirely with the regime.
       The massacres began, and every day hundreds of political prisoners were hanged and their corpses were buried hurriedly in mass graves all over major cities, in particular, Tehran.
        By the time it ended in the autumn of 1988, some 30,000 political prisoners, the overwhelming majority activists of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), had been slaughtered.
       On August 9, 2016, an audiotape was released by Khomeini's former heir, Hossein-Ali Montazeri, acknowledging that that massacre took place and had been ordered at the highest levels. [National Council of Resistance in Iran website; Facebook - Iran Gathering]
  • See an article published in CAMERA 7Feb2022 entitled Mahallati not Playing it Straight with Oberlin about Family History. Oberlin College was rocked by controversy surrounding one of its professors, Mohammad Jaffar Mahallati, a former diplomat for the Islamic Republic of Iran. He stood accused of covering up a mass killing in Iran while serving as a diplomat for that country in the 1980s. People at Oberlin argue that his alleged role in the coverup disqualifies him from serving as a professor at the school. Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio in the United States.
      On the 28th of November 2023 Oberlin College placed Iran's former UN ambassador, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, on indefinite leave from his teaching position after a campaign by Iranian Americans. A college spokesperson declined to give reasons for the measure however his nameplate was removed from his office door, and references to Mahallati were scrubbed from the college's website, including a 'factsheet' that defended the professor from accusations that he covered up crimes against humanity. " It took Oberlin College three years to take this action, in the duration it was discovered that he was also the defendant in a lawsuit alleging a predatory sex-for-grades relationship with a graduate student at Columbia University, where Mahallati taught courses in the 1990s. [Iran International2DEC2023]
    		•  Persecution, Iran; Mohammad Jaffar Mahallati; Ayatollah Bahaoddin Mahallati; Iran
    1988 15 Jul The first International Women's Conference of Paraguay opened, attended by 130 women from seven countries. [BINS180:5] Conferences, Bahá'í; Conferences, Women; Women; Paraguay; Latin America first International Women’s Conference of Paraguay
    1988 14 – 17 Jul The Bahá'í Association for Arts (BAFA) helds its first arts festival at the Bahá'í conference centre De Poort, Netherlands. [BINS180:4] Bahá'í Association for Arts (BAFA); Conferences, Bahá'í; Conferences, Arts; - First conferences; De Poort, Netherlands; Groesbeek; Netherlands first arts festival Netherlands
    1988 7 – 10 Jul The first Youth Convention of Spain was held in Madrid. [BINS180:5] Madrid, Spain first Youth Convention of Spain
    1988 Jul In 18 days of teaching, 876 adults, youth and children became Bahá'ís in Haiti. [BINS181:7]
  • Reports from the National Spiritual Assembly in September indicated that 2,371 people enrolled in the first phase of the teaching campaign.
    		•  Mass conversion; Haiti
    1988 Jul Eighty–nine people became Bahá'ís in Belize. [BINS186:2] Belize
    1988 Jul Nearly 50 people became Bahá'ís in Saipan, Mariana Islands. [BINS181:5]
  • Later reports indicated that 91 people have enrolled by October 1988.
    		•  Saipan, Mariana Islands; Mariana Islands
    1988 30 Jun - 3 Jul The Bahá'í Arts Council, Canada, held the first arts festival, 'Invitation 88: A Festival of the Human Spirit' at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario. [BINS179:2] Arts; Firsts, other; London, England; Ontario, Canada; Canada first arts festival Canada
    1988 Jun The founding of the Virtues Project by Dr. Dan Popov, Linda Kavelin-Popov and her brother John Kavelin. The project spawned a number of books by Linda Kavelin-Popov:
  • Sacred moments: Daily meditations on the Virtues (1996),
  • The Family Virtues Guide: Simple Ways to Bring Out the Best in Our Children and Ourselves (1997),
  • Sacred Moments: Daily Meditations on the Virtues (1997),
  • The virtues guide: A handbook for parents teaching virtues (1991),
  • The Virtues Project: An Educator's Guide (K-12) Simple Ways to Create a Culture of Character (2000),
  • A Pace of Grace: The Virtues of a Sustainable Life (2004),
  • Graceful Endings: Navigating the Journey of Loss and Grief 2012, as well as a Facebook page and a Twitter account. [Cook Island News June 11, 2018]
    		• Virtues Project; Dan Popov; Linda Kavelin-Popov (Linda Popov); John Popov
    1988 Jun Over 100,000 people, including large numbers of women, youth and families, became Bahá'ís in Uttar Pradesh, India. [BINS179:4] Mass conversion; Uttar Pradesh, India; India
    1988 31 May The Universal House of Justice wrote to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of New Zealand to comment on a paper titled The Service of Women on the Institutions of the Baha'i Faith presented at the New Zealand Bahai Studies Association Conference in Christchurch earlier that month.

    The paper raised the possibility that the ineligibility of women for membership on the Universal House of Justice may be a temporary provision subject to change through a process of progressive unfoldment of the divine purpose. [31 May 1988]

    		 Bahá'í Studies, Associations for; Women; Universal House of Justice, Membership on; Christchurch, NZ; New Zealand
    1988 19 May The Universal House of Justice announced changes in the membership of the International Teaching Centre.
  • Those appointed were: Dr Farzam Arbab, Hartmut Grossmann, Lauretta King, Donald Rogers, Joy Stevenson, and Peter Vuyiya to join Dr Magdalene Carney, Mas'úd Khamsí, and Isobel Sabri.
  • Those taking their retirement were; 'Azíz Yazdí (1973) and Anneliese Bopp (1979). [Mess86-01p86]
    		• International Teaching Centre; Farzam Arbab; Hartmut Grossmann; Lauretta King; Donald Rogers; Joy Stevenson; Peter Vuyiya; Magdalene Carney; Masud Khamsi; Isobel Sabri; Aziz Yazdi; Anneliese Bopp; - Bahá'í World Centre
    1988 8 May The passing of Beatrice Owen Ashton (b. 17 May, 1890, Cleveland). She was buried in the Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. [BW20p896-899]
  • She graduated from Vassar College in 1911 and in 1918 she learned of the Faith in Urbana, IL from Dr Jacob and Anna Kunz after meeting some Bahá'ís who had been picnicking. (See BW16p520 for In Memoriam for Anna Kunz)
  • In August of 1918 she married Frank Ashton at Green Acre. In post-war 1945, the National Spiritual Assembly appointed her as the international relief representative for Germany and the Philippines. During the summers from 1947 to 1953 she undertook teaching trips to Europe: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. In April of 1952 she went on pilgrimage and met the Guardian for the first time. [BN no262, December, 1952 p5-7]
  • In addition to administrative tasks she worked on the production of Bahá'í World XIII and taught summer school classes at Green Acre, Louhelen and Geyserville as well as Beaulac, Banff and Toronto in Canada.
  • She pioneered to Lethbridge, Alberta from 1958 to 1966 and taught the Faith on the Peigan Reserve (now Piikini First Nation). When the Bahá'ís of Lethbridge elected their first Local Spiritual Assembly she went back to European teaching and made four trips to Norway by 1970.
  • From 1970 she served in Haifa in the Research Department, cataloging and indexing the Guardian's letters and correspondence but in 1972 she had to return to the US due to failing health.
  • In her latter years she made an index for Citadel of Faith as well as for Messages to America and indexed the Writings of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh that Shoghi Effendi had translated.
  • Find a grave.
    		•  Beatrice Owen Ashton; Beatrice Ashton; Travel Teaching; Summer schools; Cleveland, OH; Ohio, USA; Lethbridge, AB; Canada
    1988 Ridván The Universal House of Justice was elected for the sixth time at the International Convention held in Haifa. Delegates from 148 National/Regional Assemblies participated. [BINS176; VV97]
  • Those elected were: 'Alí Nakhjavání, Glenford Mitchell, Hushmand Fatheazam, Ian Semple, Peter Khan, David Ruhe, Hugh Chance, Hooper Dunbar, Adib Taherzadeh. [Mess86-01p49]
  • A gift of a large bowl of 120 roses was received from the Bahá'í of Iran.
  • Mr. Hooper Dunbar, born in the United States, was a film actor in Hollywood before moving to Central and South America where he taught arts and English. He is an accomplished painter. He was first elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Nicaragua in 1961. He later served as a Continental Counsellor before being appointed to the International Teaching Centre in 1973. [BWNS208]
    		•  Universal House of Justice, Election of; Elections; Universal House of Justice, Members of; Conventions, International; David Hofman; H. Borrah Kavelin; Retirements; Hooper Dunbar; Gifts; Roses; Bahá'í World News Service (BWNS); - Bahá'í World Centre; Haifa, Israel; Iran
    1988 11 - 15 Apr The Global Survival Conference in Oxford attracted 200 spiritual and legislative leaders. For five days parliamentarians and cabinet members met with cardinals, metropolitans, bishops, swamis, rabbis, imams and elders. Among them were the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the High Priest of Togo's Sacred Forest, Cardinal Koenig of Vienna and Native American spiritual leader Chief Oren Lyons of the Onondaga. They conferred with renowned experts on the issues: astronomer Carl Sagan, Soviet scientist Evguenij Velikhov, women's leader Wangari Maathai, environmental scientist James Lovelock, Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova and population specialist Fred Sai. [] Global Survival Conference; Carl Sagan; Oxford, England; United Kingdom
    1988 Apr The House of Abdu'lláh Páshá was open for the Bahá'ís to visit for the first time on the occasion of the Sixth International Convention. [ARG61-62] House of `Abdu'lláh Páshá; Conventions, International; Haifa, Israel; - Bahá'í World Centre
    1988 11 Mar The passing of Italian orientalist, scholar and linguist Alessandro Bausani. As an orientalist he made contributions in several fields: Persian Literature, Islam, linguistics, the history of Islamic science, Urdu, Indonesian, and other Islamic literatures. He was a polyglot having studied all the main European languages plus Basque, Arabic, Turkish, Persian as well as Latin and Greek.
  • He accepted the Faith in 1949 and served as a member of the local and national assemblies in Italy. He was a speaker much in demand at all sorts of Bahá'í gatherings in Italy and beyond. A number of his written contributions about the Bahá'í teachings were published posthumously in a volume called, Saggi sulla Fede Bahá'í ("Essays on the Bahá'í Faith", Rome, 1991). [Obituary: Alessandro Bausani (1921-1988) by Heshmat Moayyad; Encyclopædia Iranica: BAUSANI, ALESSANDRO]
  • Alessandro Bausani was a prolific writer. A small sampling of his publications include:
    		• Alessandro Bausani; In Memoriam; Births and deaths; Italy
    1988 8 Mar Shirin Fozdar, ardent champion of women's rights and influential women's leader, was honoured for her work for equality and women's advancement at a ceremony organized by the Singapore Council of Women, which she founded in 1952. [BINS176:7] Shirin Fozdar; Women; Awards; Singapore
    1988 Mar The publication of the first edition of the trilingual publication The Journal of Bahá'í Studies under the auspices of the Association for Bahá'í Studies in North America.
  • See the Editorial Statement.
  • Current and past issues are available at their website. In addition, one can make a submission on the site.
  • Copies of the Journal can be purchased at their website.
    		•  Bahá'í studies; Journal of Bahá'í Studies; Bahá'í Studies, Associations for; Association for Bahá'í Studies (North America); Canada; USA; North America
    1988 19 Feb The publication of the statement by the Bahá'í International Community, "Eliminating Torture", for the forty-fourth session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Torture; United Nations; Bahá'í International Community; - BIC statements; Geneva, Switzerland
    1988 17 Feb The publication of the statement by the Bahá'í International Community, "Eliminating Religious Intolerance", for the forty-fourth session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Religious intolerance; United Nations; Bahá'í International Community; - BIC statements; * Publications; Geneva, Switzerland; Switzerland
    1988 1 Jan The publication of Fountain of Wisdom: A Collection of Writings from Bahá'u'lláh by the Bahá'í Publishing Trust in Wilmette. It is a re-printed and re-titled Tablets of Baha'u'llah Revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas. * Bahá'u'lláh, Writings of
    1988 Jan A teaching campaign was launched in Chad, resulting in 1,340 new Bahá'ís and 33 new local spiritual assemblies. [BINS187:1] Local Spiritual Assembly; Chad
    1988 (In the year) Hand of the Cause of God William Sears and his wife Marguerite Reimer Sears initiated the first Desert Rose Bahá'í School with the assistance of a core group of dedicated friends. This became an annual event for the Southern Arizona Bahá'í's each Thanksgiving weekend and was held in a rented hall in Tucson, Arizona.

    in 1992, after the passing of her husband, Mrs Sears was encouraged by the Universal House of Justice to expand the four-day Desert Rose Bahá'í school to a permanent institute.

    In 1996 Mrs Sears, with the help of many friends, purchased land near Eloy, Arizona for the development of the Desert Rose Bahá'í Institute, which she envisioned as an Institute for education in the arts and agriculture. When the land was purchased, the Round House was the only building on the property. A cottage was constructed for Mrs. Sears that provided both comfortable living space and room where she could work with partners on cataloguing and publishing some of Bill Sears' remaining works while building a library. The following year the Desert Rose Bahá'í Institute was incorporated with Not-for-Profit status.

    Since that time a Meeting and Dining Hall was built and a Guest House was constructed near the Sears Cottage was built by David Hadden for use by him and his family. In 2018 this Guest House was converted into and Art Gallery. In 2001 a 16 rental apartment was built to help offset the operating costs. In 2004 the William Sears Pavilion was dedicated. It was designed as a place were people could go to reflect, pray, meditate, or celebrate. More accommodations were built in 2005 in the name of the Guffey Center, honouring two volunteers, Ray and Gloria Guffey.

    In 2017 the DRBI was granted a licence to operate a low power (LP) radio station for Eloy Arizona to serve the community. Radio station KURE was licensed to operate on 106.1 FM as part of the Institute.

    In 2019 DRBI Board member Dwight Cox initiated an agricultural project to grow organic produce. [DRBI website; Desert Rose Bahá'í Institute - History]

    		Bahá'í Radio; Bahá'í-owned radio; Institutes; Tucson, AZ; USA
    1988 (In the year) The publication of La terre n'est qu'un seul pays! by Andre Brugiroux. Brugiroux, a French traveller, set out in 1955 at the age of 17 with 10 Francs in his pocket to fulfill his dream of travelling to every country in the world. He did so purely by hitchhiking and spent no more than a dollar a day on his journey. He travelled a total of 240,000 miles and ended his journey in South Sudan in 2011, having visited 251 countries and territories. He went on to write several books, this being the first. It was published in English as One People, One Planet: The Adventures of a World Citizen. [Wikipedia]
  • For a short video of 83 year old Andre Brugiroux see a Tweet by Reuters.
  • See an interview he did in 2001 in Sydney on the ABC with presenter Rachel Kohn on her program The Spirit of Things. Click on "show transcript".
  • His website.
    		•  Andre Brugiroux
    1988 (In the year) The Bahá'í International Community became a founding member of 'Advocates for African Food Security: Lessening the Burden for Women, a coalition of agencies and organizations formed to act on behalf of farm women in Africa, and is convener for 1988–92. Bahá'í International Community; Rural development; Social and economic development; Women; Africa
    1988 (In the year) More than a thousand people became Bahá'ís in Taiwan as a result of the Muhájir Teaching Project. [BINS187:4] Muhajir Teaching Project; Taiwan
    1988 (In the year) 'Arts for Nature', a fund-raising programme held to benefit the work of the World Wide Fund for Nature, was held in London with the collaboration of the Bahá'í International Community. [AWH61; VV106] Bahá'í International Community; Arts; Nature; World Wide Fund for Nature; Environment; London, England; United Kingdom
    1988 (In the year) Branches of the Bahá'í International Community's Office of Public Information were established in Paris and London. [VV54] Bahá'í International Community; Paris, France; London, England
    1988 (In the year) The first Caribbean Bahá'í Women's conference took place in Antigua. Caribbean; Conferences, Bahá'í; Conferences, Women; - First conferences; Antigua first Caribbean Bahá’í Women’s conference
    1988 (In the year) The government of Niger authorized the resumption of Bahá'í activities and Bahá'í administration under an administrative committee. Recognition (legal); Niger
    1988 (In the year) The opening of the School of the Nations in Taipa, Macau with 5 students enrolled in kindergarten and operated out of an apartment. The teachers outnumbered the students.
  • In its second year it had 100 students and nearly 200 in the third year. Eventually, the Macau government donated land where a 7-story facility was opened in 2008. That new building included a library that was also accessible to the public throughout the week. In 2019 School of the Nations had 600 students from kindergarten through high school and 100 teachers.
  • The school became a high performer in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and was the first in Macau to offer the International General Certificate of Secondary Education, the two most widely recognized international qualifications accepted by the majority of universities in the world. [SoN, BWNS460; BWNS1305]
  • The school's website.
  • Bahaipedia.
    		• School of the Nations, Macau; - Bahá'í inspired schools; Bahá'í World News Service (BWNS); Taipa, Macau; Macau

    Try also a shorter date like or 1988 or 198

    try also the Chronology Canada — 1988-0 or 1988 or 198

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