Where did Táhirih grow up and live?

📍Qazvin, Qazvin Province, Iran

1817 – 1852

“I was born Fatemeh Zarrin Taj Baraghani around 1817 in Qazvin, Iran, into a family of prominent Shia Muslim clerics. I became a poet and theologian of remarkable ability and one of the first followers of the Bab, the founder of the Babi religious movement. I was the only woman among the Bab's eighteen disciples, known as the Letters of the Living. At a conference in 1848 I appeared without a veil — an act of extraordinary courage in nineteenth-century Iran that announced the new religious dispensation's equality of men and women. I was imprisoned, tortured, and eventually executed in 1852, reportedly saying that you can kill me but you cannot stop the emancipation of women. I was between thirty-five and thirty-seven years old.”

👍 LovedThe theological education my father provided — unusual for a girl — that gave me the tools to argue my faith. The Babi community's vision of a new religious dispensation. The poetry that expressed the mystical dimension of what I believed.

👎 DislikedThe imprisonment and torture. The execution at thirty-six. The society that could not accommodate a woman who refused subordination.

Map showing where Táhirih lived — Qazvin, Qazvin Province, Iran

🗺️ Approximate location today

Satellite view of Táhirih's home at Qazvin, Qazvin Province, Iran

Sources: Root, M. Táhirih the Pure (1938), Kalimat Press; Maneck, S. The Death of Ahriman: Culture, Identity and Theological Change (1997)