Umaná Company
The Shirkat-i Umaná, meaning Company of Trustees was a Bahá’í company established in Iran to serve as the registered owner of all properties belonging to the Bahá’í community in the country.[1]
Background[edit]
Important Bahá’í properties in Iran including the Holy places were officially registered as being owned by Shoghi Effendi as the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran itself did not have any legal status in the country. After his passing in November 1957 the Umaná Company was established and assumed official ownership of the properties.[2]
Properties owned by the Umaná company included the House of the Báb in Shiraz, the Houses of Bahá’u’lláh in Tehran and Takur, the site which had been secured for the construction of a Temple, the National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds, a Bahá’í operated hospital in Tehran, and Bahá’í cemeteries across the country.[1]
In March 1979 the Revolutionary government of Iran seized all assets and properties from the company.[1] The employees of the company were gathered and individually interrogated before being dismissed from their positions and many Bahá’ís who had served on the companies Board of Directors were martyred in the early 1980's.[3]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986, p 754
- ↑ Shapour Rassekh, Shu‘á: Ray of the Sun, George Ronald: Oxford, 2021, p 94
- ↑ Changiz Geula (Summer, 1999). "Health Care in a Persecuted Community: The Iranian Bahá’ís". World Order. Vol. 30, no. 4. National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States. p. 43.
