‘Unwavering devotion’: Remembering the life of Baha’i Aflatoon Payman 

Aflatoon Payman – a Persian Baha’i who pioneered to Australia from Indonesia with his family in the mid-1960s and later served on the National Spiritual Assembly, and as the first Deputy Trustee of Huququ’llah for Australia and the other countries of the South-Western Pacific region – died in Melbourne on 26 April 2024. He was aged 92.

Born in Iran in 1931, Aflatoon left his homeland in 1956 together with his wife Talieh, migrating to Indonesia and then to Australia 10 years later where he was to spend the rest of his life.  

Inspired by appeals made by the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, he went to Indonesia to help support its fledgling Baha’i community. He was motivated by a similar goal when he later came to Australia.  

In the mid-1960s there were only a handful of Persian Baha’is in Australia. Aflatoon, Talieh, and their children had the distinction of being just the third Persian Baha’i family to settle in Melbourne. Over the following decades, Aflatoon served his Faith in Victoria and Australia in several different roles, including as a member of the Local Spiritual Assemblies of Prahran (the local governing body of that area) and Stonnington; the Regional Teaching Committee for Victoria; the National Spiritual Assembly (national governing body of Australia); and the institution of Huququ’llah.  

As a member of the National Spiritual Assembly, Aflatoon helped that body welcome numerous Persian Baha’is who came to Australia as refugees following the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. The large influx of Persian believers transformed the demographic composition of the Australian Baha’i community, presenting the institutions of the Faith with many challenges, both internal and external, as they sought to facilitate the integration of the new arrivals in Australian society. With the assistance of the government and other organisations in the wider Australian community, the Baha’i institutions were able to deal successfully with these challenges over time. 

Aflatoon was born in Yazd, in central Iran, in 1931, to a Baha’i family of Zoroastrian extraction. The youngest of five brothers, all of whom subsequently left the country to live abroad, he and his family moved north to Tehran, the capital city, when he was a child and it was there that he received his primary, secondary, and tertiary education, graduating from Tehran University with a degree in civil engineering. One of his lecturers in the engineering faculty at that university was Mehdi Bazargan, a leading mathematician, who later became Iran’s first prime minister after the Islamic Revolution.  

Aflatoon excelled at Tehran University, winning a scholarship upon graduation to attend the American University in Beirut, Lebanon – then the most prestigious university in the Middle East.

Following his marriage in 1956 to Talieh Haddad – whose father’s firm had built the imposing dome of the Baha’i Centre in Tehran, which was later demolished by the army at the instigation of fanatical clerics – the newlywed couple made the bold decision to leave Iran and migrate to Indonesia, to which two of Aflatoon’s brothers, Khodarahm and Kaikhosrow, and their cousin Rustam Payman, had already gone. Aflatoon and Talieh were to live in Indonesia for 10 years. 

After the foreign oil company for which he worked elected to terminate its operations in Indonesia, Aflatoon couldn’t find suitable alternative employment in that country. Faced with the choice of either returning to Iran or going elsewhere, he and Talieh decided to move to Australia, to which his brother Kaikhosrow and his family had already relocated. 

From the time of his arrival in Melbourne in 1966, Aflatoon threw himself into Baha’i activities. In those days there were only a few hundred Baha’is throughout Australia, and their efforts were focused on teaching the Faith to interested people and forming Local Spiritual Assemblies. Aflatoon and Talieh used to hold gatherings at their home every Tuesday night to discuss the Faith. They also attended Baha’i summer schools in Yerrinbool, at which they befriended Baha’is from other parts of the country. Arranging visits to Melbourne by prominent Baha’is from interstate and overseas, such as Hands of the Cause of God Collis Featherstone, John Robarts, Dr Muhajir, Abu’l-Qasim Faizi, and Dr Furutan, was another important community activity in which they were involved.  

Aflatoon was elected to the National Assembly at a by-election in 1975 and remained a member of that body until 1989, including as its Treasurer between 1978-80. He was for many years the only Persian-Australian member. 

During his long period of service on the National Assembly, Aflatoon visited Israel three times – in 1978, 1983, and 1988 – to participate as a delegate from Australia in Baha’i International Conventions held in Haifa. Prior to moving to Australia, he and Talieh had attended the First Baha’i World Congress in London in 1963; and three decades later, they went to New York to take part in the Second Baha’i World Congress in 1992. 

Aflatoon was appointed a Deputy Trustee of Huququ’llah in 1983 and served, with distinction, in that role for more than 28 years.  He was responsible for receiving and receipting payments; and educating Baha’i communities and individuals about the law and the institution of Huququ’llah.  In 1991 he was one of only 23 Deputy Trustees, from all over the world, to attend the second Huququ’llah conference with Hand of the Cause and Trustee of Huququ’llah Dr. Ali Muhammad Varqa, which took place in Landegg, Switzerland.   

During his professional career, Aflatoon worked as an engineer for three major oil companies – Stanvac and Shell in Indonesia and Mobil in Australia.  

Aflatoon’s life was shaped by two key constants. One was his unwavering devotion to the Faith, which he served humbly, skillfully, and with deep conviction. And the other was his happy marriage to Talieh, which lasted almost 70 years and was the rock on which everything that he accomplished was built. He is survived by her and their three children and five grandchildren.