We Are One Family: Mehrdad Mazloum and Elsie Stevens

February 24, 2017

Mehrdad Mazloum and Elsie Stevens—born in Iran and in the American South, respectively—are followers of the Baha’i faith. In this conversation, the friends discuss Baha’i belief and practice, as well as the challenges they have faced living in communities that do not understand their faith.

This story was produced by David Dault at Sandburg Media, LLC.

This story is a part of the American Pilgrimage Project, a conversation series that invites Americans of diverse backgrounds to sit together and talk to each other one-to-one about the role their religious beliefs play at crucial moments in their lives. The interview was recorded by StoryCorps, a national nonprofit whose mission is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.

Mehrdad Mazloum: Baha'i is a Arabic or Persian word, meaning light or glory. It's spelled B-A-H-A apostrophe I. A Baha'i means the follower of the light, it's just like a Christian is a follower of Christ. A Baha'i is the follower of Baha'u'llah, which means the glory of God. In the Bible, Jesus, when he came the first time he came the station of the son of God, and he said that he will return in the glory of the father, and Baha'u'llah, translated in to English means the glory of the father or the glory of God. And Jesus continued: he, meaning this glory of God, he shall glorify me, glorify me. He shall receive a mind and shall show it onto you. And Baha'u'llah has done just that.

Elsie Stevens: When I became a Baha'i that was hard for my family. I know it was hard on them. And I didn't realize at the time, but as years went by, I realized they didn't recognize that I also to be a Baha'i, I had to accept Christ. I couldn't dump him in the trash because I had chosen a different prophet. And that's how we're encouraged to go to other churches. But so often it seems people tend to think they have a monopoly on the messenger from God.

Mehrdad Mazloum: This is very important because Baha'u'llah says you should not follow traditions and should not fall imitate because in the words of Jesus Christ, when the blind leads the blind, they both fall in the ditch. So we have to believe; our belief has to be informed—so independent investigation of truth.

Elsie Stevens: I met you in 1985 when I myself became a Baha'i. You were already a Baha'i, here in Mobile, Alabama. And as I made friends in the community, I learned that you were not American-born, that you came from Iran. You were in a religious minority and in a Muslim world. Were you persecuted?

Mehrdad Mazloum: If you remember, there was Ayatollah Khomeini that brought about the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Just like the Jews in Germany, first they start with the faith and the socioeconomic side will be affected, and so I thought I'm going to be limited. One of the most important thing to a Baha'i is to tell other people about the Baha'i faith. And I wanted to do that and I could do this in America. I know I have freedom to tell people about Baha'i, so that's why I came.

Elsie Stevens: In our gatherings sometimes you sing a prayer, and other times we sing just to celebrate.

Mehrdad Mazloum: Baha'u'llah says that music is the ladder by which we can ascend to heaven, so it has to do with our soul, even though we don't speak the language, but people can feel the music. People can feel what we are feeling because we sing out of our heart.

Elsie Stevens: Out of devotion, yeah.

Mehrdad Mazloum: Through singing, we want to tell the people, we want to show the people, how much we love and how Baha'u'llah has brought us together.

In an old part of Jerusalem, the children are playing. They run and laugh the way that it should be, but one will wear the star, and one will where the crescent. They'll grow up and change from friends to enemies. But we are all flowers of one garden. We are all leaves of one tree. Let the walls come down, stand here together. We are one family.