From: We are Baha'is
In the face of sustained persecution, Dr. Furutan's family
left their native city of Sabzivir in Khurasan, Persia, in 1914 and settled in
Ashkhabad, Russia. As a youth he became an active member of the local Baha'i
community and, whilst still in his teens, became a teacher in its school. In
1926 he won a scholarship to the University of Moscow to study education and
child psychology. In 1930 he returned to Iran where he established a school for
Baha'i children in one of the villages. Dr. Furutan was appointed as principal
of the Tarbiyat school for boys until its closure in 1934, and wrote study
books for Baha’i children’s classes which are still in use. In April 1934 he was elected to the newly formed
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran and served as its secretary
until the passing of Shoghi Effendi in November of 1957. Dr. Furutan was
appointed a Hand of the Cause
by Shoghi Effendi, in the first
contingent of Hands, in December
1951. In 1957 he became one of the nine custodial Hands of the Cause in Haifa.
Dr. Furutan’s Persian publications are extensive, and several have been
translated into English. (Adapted from ‘A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha’i
Faith’, by Peter Smith)(See also Baha'i Calendar - this month in history)
