‘Azíz’u’lláh Dhabíhíyán

‘Azíz’u’lláh Dhabíhíyán
Born	1924 Yazd, Iran
Died	September 8, 1980 Yazd, Iran
ABM	Asia ???? - 1980

‘Azíz’u’lláh Dhabíhíyán (1924 - September 8, 1980) was a Persian Bahá’í who served as an Auxiliary Board member until being martyred in the wake of the Iranian Revolution.

Biography

Dhabíhíyán was born into a Bahá’í family in the 1920's. His mother wrote to Shoghi Effendi at some point and received a reply noting that Shoghi Effendi was praying for Dhabíhíyán to be endeared in "this world and the world to come". In his career Dhabíhíyán was a teacher and he later became a civil servant working for the Ministry of Education of Iran. He was also an active member of the Bahá’í community and served on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Yazd for three decades.

Dhabíhíyán retired from his career early in order to devote more time to serving the Faith and at some point he was appointed as an Auxiliary Board member assigned responsibility for Yazd, Kirman, and Baluchistan. Following the Revolution in Iran which began in 1979 the Auxiliary Board member for Shiraz was arrested expanding his jurisdiction to include Shiraz and he spent the vast majority of his time traveling to meet with Bahá’ís. His home in Yazd was raided several times by Revolutionary Guards in his absence and his wife left the city on the advice of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Yazd.

In 1980 Dhabíhíyán was arrested in Shiraz and tortured with fake executions being staged in order to pressure him to recant. At some point he was transferred to Yazd where he was imprisoned with six other Bahá’ís and they were martyred together on September 8, 1980.