Meet the peace-loving Baha’is of the city
Minority group embraces the positive side of the walled city.
Minority group embraces the positive side of the walled city. DESIGN: OMER ASIM
PESHAWAR:
For the Baha’i minority, Peshawar remains ‘the city of flowers’ regardless of the countless deaths of its citizens in bomb blasts and suicide attacks. The small community still hopes for good days ahead which they believe will bring outsiders for business and good living. Relatively unknown to the wider Muslim community, the Baha’is of Peshawar are peace-bringing, love-sharing and focus on the positive side of life.
“We will never leave Peshawar. The city and the people have always given us love and respect. We can’t flee leaving the field where we can bring peace and share love,” said Wahid Ajmali*, one of the very few Baha’i faith followers in the city. The community’s population is less than 20 in Peshawar and resides in separate areas of the city including Hayatabad and Warsak Road.
Ajmali lives in one of the city’s well-developed areas with his wife and children in a house built by his late father who migrated from Sindh with his family. Their family had relocated in the 1980s when Sindh was facing law and order difficulties and the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) was at its peak. During that period, Karachi and Hyderabad were facing frequent shutter-down strikes and curfews.
“Conditions were not good at the time and there was no business so we decided to migrate to Peshawar. Back then, Peshawar was the most peaceful place in the country,” he said, narrating the story of their shift. A picture of Bahaullah, the founder of Baha’i faith, adorns the front wall of his house’s guest room and Ajmali serves as the focal person of their community in Peshawar.
According to Ajmali, people of Peshawar are good to them. “Muslims are very good and cooperative. I have never seen any wrong in them.” Baha’is offer their prayers individually so they have no public worship places in Peshawar. However, they conduct Jalsiyaat-e-Duaya (prayer gatherings) in their homes in which people from different religions also take part. They also celebrate their religious festivals like Eid-e-Nauroz and Eid-e-Ridvan in Peshawar. They have adopted the city’s culture and attend weddings and other functions of their Muslim friends, he said.
Ajmali continues to be inspired by the hospitality of the people of Peshawar which he has never witnessed in other cities. “Everyone will offer to share their food with you wherever you go in Peshawar. If you ask someone for an address, they will leave their own work and will try to guide you. I have received love here and I don’t know whether I will be treated the same in another city,” he said, explaining his admiration of the locals and why he is not willing to leave Peshawar for other parts of the country.
Some of their community’s people have left the city, but Ajmali says that none of them relocated because of law and order conditions. “People have shifted to other cities for business and education, but not due to security concerns.”
Sasan Nikain Yazdi, the general secretary of the community’s national spiritual assembly, confirmed that the population of their community in Peshawar is less than 20. “We have no problems in Peshawar and our people have good relations within the society and with government,” he said.
Taking their faith into consideration, Baha’is cannot contest elections in the government polls on any political or religious party’s seat. However, they are permitted to secretly cast votes. “We vote for our local spiritual assembly at Peshawar on a secret ballot system. In general elections, we cast our votes to political party candidates. We never share our decision with anyone not even with our family members.” The spiritual assembly includes nine members of at least 21 years of age. The assembly looks after the community’s administration within the city. The government has issued them a place for their graveyard on Warsak Road which presently holds five graves of Baha’i faith followers. Baha’is in Peshawar keep low profiles and have endured threats of extortion, but maintain that the issue was later resolved. Everybody in the community, however, avoids speaking about the possibility of attacks.
(*Name has been changed to protect identity)
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2015.
For the Baha’i minority, Peshawar remains ‘the city of flowers’ regardless of the countless deaths of its citizens in bomb blasts and suicide attacks. The small community still hopes for good days ahead which they believe will bring outsiders for business and good living. Relatively unknown to the wider Muslim community, the Baha’is of Peshawar are peace-bringing, love-sharing and focus on the positive side of life.
“We will never leave Peshawar. The city and the people have always given us love and respect. We can’t flee leaving the field where we can bring peace and share love,” said Wahid Ajmali*, one of the very few Baha’i faith followers in the city. The community’s population is less than 20 in Peshawar and resides in separate areas of the city including Hayatabad and Warsak Road.
Ajmali lives in one of the city’s well-developed areas with his wife and children in a house built by his late father who migrated from Sindh with his family. Their family had relocated in the 1980s when Sindh was facing law and order difficulties and the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) was at its peak. During that period, Karachi and Hyderabad were facing frequent shutter-down strikes and curfews.
“Conditions were not good at the time and there was no business so we decided to migrate to Peshawar. Back then, Peshawar was the most peaceful place in the country,” he said, narrating the story of their shift. A picture of Bahaullah, the founder of Baha’i faith, adorns the front wall of his house’s guest room and Ajmali serves as the focal person of their community in Peshawar.
According to Ajmali, people of Peshawar are good to them. “Muslims are very good and cooperative. I have never seen any wrong in them.” Baha’is offer their prayers individually so they have no public worship places in Peshawar. However, they conduct Jalsiyaat-e-Duaya (prayer gatherings) in their homes in which people from different religions also take part. They also celebrate their religious festivals like Eid-e-Nauroz and Eid-e-Ridvan in Peshawar. They have adopted the city’s culture and attend weddings and other functions of their Muslim friends, he said.
Ajmali continues to be inspired by the hospitality of the people of Peshawar which he has never witnessed in other cities. “Everyone will offer to share their food with you wherever you go in Peshawar. If you ask someone for an address, they will leave their own work and will try to guide you. I have received love here and I don’t know whether I will be treated the same in another city,” he said, explaining his admiration of the locals and why he is not willing to leave Peshawar for other parts of the country.
Some of their community’s people have left the city, but Ajmali says that none of them relocated because of law and order conditions. “People have shifted to other cities for business and education, but not due to security concerns.”
Sasan Nikain Yazdi, the general secretary of the community’s national spiritual assembly, confirmed that the population of their community in Peshawar is less than 20. “We have no problems in Peshawar and our people have good relations within the society and with government,” he said.
Taking their faith into consideration, Baha’is cannot contest elections in the government polls on any political or religious party’s seat. However, they are permitted to secretly cast votes. “We vote for our local spiritual assembly at Peshawar on a secret ballot system. In general elections, we cast our votes to political party candidates. We never share our decision with anyone not even with our family members.” The spiritual assembly includes nine members of at least 21 years of age. The assembly looks after the community’s administration within the city. The government has issued them a place for their graveyard on Warsak Road which presently holds five graves of Baha’i faith followers. Baha’is in Peshawar keep low profiles and have endured threats of extortion, but maintain that the issue was later resolved. Everybody in the community, however, avoids speaking about the possibility of attacks.
(*Name has been changed to protect identity)
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2015.