Mahin Hashemi

The first thing is to associate with very well behaved individuals. If you want to succeed choose your friends wisely. Number one is to serve mankind. If you get an education you can serve people.

Mahin Hashemi

My name is Mahin Hashemi. I was born August 1, 1937. I grew up in a city next to the Caspian Sea in northern Iran, which is a beautiful place. I use to go fishing and camping all the time.

My father was a physician. Patients would give him chicken and rice for payment. I only got to see father on the weekends. That’s how we lived until [I was] ten years old. My mother got very ill with tuberculosis. We had to move to the capitol of Tehran to treat her. My mother died in the hospital when she was only 42 years old. My father remarried and had his own life. I felt lonely a lot.

Religion isn’t hereditary. You have to investigate and then choose. We had two religions in our family. My father was Muslim, but mother was Baha’i. When I was fifteen I decided I wanted to be Baha’i. After that I didn’t feel lonely anymore. If you believe in God you will never feel lonely. You always have someone.

The Baha’i religion is so peaceful. It’s teaching you to serve and love mankind. Its basic principal is the equality of men and women. Baha’u’llah is the prophet and founder of the Baha’i faith. Baha’i started 160 years ago in Iran.

I got married when I was 22 years old. I have four children, two boys and two girls. In 1979 there was a revolution in Iran. There was a religious man called Ayatollah Khomeini. He promised the people that when he returned to Iran he would make every thing nice and beautiful. Sadly, the Iranian people got fooled.

The Ayatollah started bothering the Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians and the Baha’is. With the Jews and Christians they would take their money, but wouldn’t kill them. With the Baha’is they would not only steal all of your things, but if you would not refute the Baha’is faith they would kill you. There were 300,000 Baha’i living in Iran at the time.
It was very scary. We were one of the last ones who could leave Iran by plane. There was an American Baha’i family in Fargo, North Dakota who accepted us.

This was during the American hostage crisis, so some people in America didn’t like us because we were from Iran. At that time, we really had no place to really be.

I was 39 years old when I left Iran. For 26 years I have been in America. People are very good to us here. Right now I enjoy being with grandchildren and taking care of them.