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Romania

From Bahaipedia
 Romania
Junior youth group in Cluj, Romania, in the 2010's.
Location of Romania
National AssemblyRomania
Statistics:
Total Population
 -  UN 2021[1] 19,328,560
Bahá'í pop.
 -  Bahá'í source  
 -  Non-Bahá'í source 1,697
History:
Firsts
 -  Bahá'í to visit 1926, Martha Root 
 -  Local Bahá'í Arecla Spulber 
 -  Pioneers 1968, Fereydoun Khazrai 
 -  National Assembly 1991 
Official Website http://www.bahai.go.ro/
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Categories: Romania • People

Romania is a country located at the border of Central and Eastern Europe. Romanian is the official language and Christianity is the predominant religion.

In recent history the region became independent from the Ottoman Empire as Romania in 1877. After the Second World War the country joined the Warsaw Pact aligning with the Soviet Union remaining a socialist republic until 1989 when it became a democracy through a revolution.

The Bahá’í Faith was introduced to Romania in 1926 with Queen Marie, the wife of the King and Head of State of the country, expressing a deep interest and appreciation of the religion. A Bahá’í pioneered to the country in 1968 however a community could not established until governmental restrictions were relaxed in 1989. A community quickly developed in the early 1990s and remains active to the present day.

History[edit]

Martha Root visited Bucharest, Romania, in January 1926 and found success in teaching in the city,[2] culminating in an audience with Queen Marie, wife of the King of Romania, at the end of the month two days after writing a letter to her.[3] The Queen was highly receptive and ordered a large number of Bahá’í books and later in the year authored statements praising the Faith, Bahá’u’lláh, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and outlining some of its teachings which were published in several languages across the world.[4] In October 1927 Root visited Bucharest again for two weeks and met with Queen Marie,[5] and she visited the country again in July, 1933, sailing on the Danube river with an Esperantist group.[6]

After the Second World War the Royal family of Romania was deposed and the new government outlawed teaching the Faith preventing the establishment of a Bahá’í community.[7] Shoghi Effendi made opening Romania to the Faith of the Ten Year Crusade in 1953 and in 1968 Fereydoun Khazrai was able to move to the country for which he was named a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh.[8] In the late 1960's Khazrai married Arecla Spulber, a native Romanian who became the first Romanian Bahá’í. Two medical students and their mother also became Bahá’ís through Khazrai however pressure from the Romanian secret police and their Faculty of Medicine forced them to cut off all contact with the Khazrai's and eventually only Romanians with approval from the secret police were allowed to visit them. In March 1981 Khazrai and his family were instructed to leave the country within twenty-four hours by police under orders from the Romanian Ministry of the Interior.[9]

There were three German Bahá’í students living in the country and one local Romanian Bahá’í as of 1986. A change of government in 1989 resulted in restrictions being relaxed and Bahá’í travel teachers from Austria and Germany began visiting Romania and there were sixteen Bahá’ís living in six localities across the country by Ridvan 1989. The first National Bahá’í Teaching Conference of Romania was held in 1990 with forty people declaring while in attendance.[7]

The Romanian Bahá’í community grew and developed rapidly as the 1990's began and by Ridvan 1991 there were one thousand Bahá’ís, twelve Local Spiritual Assemblies, and twenty-eight Bahá’í groups in the country allowing for the establishment of the National Spiritual Assembly of Romania that year. The inaugural National Convention of Romania was covered in a forty-minute television programme which was broadcast nationally and included an interview with Rúḥíyyih Khánum who represented the Universal House of Justice at the Convention.[10]

In 1994 youth conferences on the theme of shaping Europe were held in Romania organized by the European Bahá’í Youth Council,[11] and in 1995 a Bahá’í delegation met with the President of Romania and other government officials during which they presented the Bahá’í teachings on the unity of humankind.[12] In 1997 a Bahá’í Summer School was held in the mountains of Busteni,[13] and in 1998 a summer school was held in Sinaia with a commemoration of the Sixtieth Anniversary of the passing of Queen Marie taking place during it.[14]

In 2001 the Mayflower Kindergarten, a Bahá’í inspired school for young children, was established in Covasna.[15] In 2003 the government of Romania co-sponsored a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly on ongoing human rights violations against Bahá’ís in Iran,[16] and in 2010 the Romanian representative devoted the majority of its time to discussing the oppression of Bahá’ís in Iran at a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council.[17]

In 2020 the Bahá’í community of Romania began holding online devotional gatherings during lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.[18] In 2022 a Bahá’í conference was held in Bucharest as part of the Global Conferences initiative of the international Bahá’í community which was attended by a Mayor of the city,[19] and as a result of the conference a three day festival was held with the city permitting a street to be closed to accomadate it.[20]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ "World Population Prospects 2022". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  2. ↑ M. R. Garis (1983). Martha Root: Lioness at the Threshold. United States: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, United States. p. 240. ISBN 0877431841.
  3. ↑ M. R. Garis (1983). Martha Root: Lioness at the Threshold. United States: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, United States. p. 242. ISBN 0877431841.
  4. ↑ M. R. Garis (1983). Martha Root: Lioness at the Threshold. United States: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, United States. p. 245. ISBN 0877431841.
  5. ↑ M. R. Garis (1983). Martha Root: Lioness at the Threshold. United States: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, United States. p. 287. ISBN 0877431841.
  6. ↑ M. R. Garis (1983). Martha Root: Lioness at the Threshold. United States: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, United States. p. 391. ISBN 0877431841.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 219. View as PDF.
  8. ↑ The Baha'i World: In Memoriam - 1992-1997, p 121
  9. ↑ The Baha'i World: In Memoriam - 1992-1997, p 122
  10. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 220. View as PDF.
  11. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1996). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 23 (1994-1995), Pg(s) 189. View as PDF.
  12. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1997). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 24 (1995-1996), Pg(s) 72. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1999). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 26 (1997-1998), Pg(s) 107. View as PDF.
  14. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2000). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 27 (1998-1999), Pg(s) 78. View as PDF.
  15. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2007). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 34 (2005-2006), Pg(s) 52. View as PDF.
  16. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/259/
  17. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/757/
  18. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1427/
  19. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1601/slideshow/3/
  20. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1601/slideshow/2/
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