A Baha'i Perspective

Leif Hansen's Bleeding Purple Heart Podcast interview of Pasha Mohajer-Jasbi at Camp Seymour. Pasha tells her humorous story about how she found the Bahá'í Faith.

Bob is an educator who spent 24 years in Africa living in Zambia and Botswana. Before playing Bob's interview, I play a news piece by Chicago Public Radio. In May 2008 the Baha'is of the United States held their 100th annual National Convention at the Baha'i House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, when they elected their national governing council called the National Spiritual Assembly. Chicago Public Radio covered the convention.

Baha'¡s from Nepal currently living in Amherst, MA

A member of the Amherst, MA Bahá'í community who emigrated to the US from Ghana many years ago.

A Bahá'í from India who is currently living in Amherst, MA.

Donna started singing professionally when she was 16, starting with Ray Anthony and other bands. After touring with these bands, Donna got the opportunity to debut the Doublemint Gum jingle. Donna returned to working with a band making a couple of albums for the Command label.

Derek grew up in Lancashire England. At about the age of 15, Derek started looking at other religions such as Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Islam. He also ran into the Baha'i Faith at that time but didn't seriously look into it until he returned from Cambridge where he had studied economics. Derek tells a funny story about his introduction to the Baha'i Faith.

A member of the Amherst, MA Bahá'í community who is involved in a number of community associations including the local chapter of the NAACP and the Interfaith Council.

Carol is a Baha'i from the Denver area. She grew up in Buffalo, NY, then moved to NJ and finally settled in the Denver metropolitan area in her teenage years. It was while she was in middle school in Denver that she and her mother discovered the Baha'i Faith.

Jean grew up in the segregated south and became involved with the civil rights movement, starting in the early sixties with the NAACP and then later with the Congress Of Racial Equality [CORE]. When she moved to California her social activism widened to include the antiwar and antipoverty movements. She eventually moved to western Massachusetts where she ran into the Baha'i Faith.

Bruce is not a Baha'i. He heard my program on Valley Free Radio and contacted me with an interesting proposal. What if we do an interview with someone who is not a Baha'i and has questions about the Baha'i Faith. I thought this was an interesting idea, so I went along with it. It turned out to be a wonderful experience.

Harry is a Baha'i from Jamaica that was passing through after being in Haifa, Israel as a delegate from his country to elect the world governing body of the Baha'is called the Universal House of Justice. Since I had some time after Harry's interview, I decided to play the audio from an information video on the history of the Baha'i Faith since Harry had touched on it briefly in the interview.

Mike ran into the Baha'i Faith when he and his best friend from high school were seekers of spiritual truth. This search lead Mike to Sufism and then ultimately to the Baha'i Faith.

A Baha'i who grew up in a little town called Camphill, AL during the segregated '60s. She was despised both by the white and the black members of her community because of the lightness of the color of her skin, so she turned to books. However, her mother would beat her when she found out she was reading. When she turned 18 she went off to college to be as far away as possible. She majored in English and became an accomplished journalist.

My son, Damian, was in the Washington, DC area and had an opportunity to interview Layli Miller-Muro at the Tahirih Justice Center. Layli is the founder and executive director of the Tahirih Justice Center, which is a free legal service for women and girls who are fleeing human rights abuses. She co-wrote a book titled Do They Hear You When You Cry? which describes the immigration case involving female genital mutilation that inspired the creation of the Tahirih Justice Center.