Baháʼí Faith in Turkmenistan
Aspect of religious life in Turkmenistan / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Baháʼí Faith in Turkmenistan begins before Russian advances into the region when the area was under the influence of Persia.[1] By 1887 a community of Baháʼí refugees from religious violence in Persia had made a religious center in Ashgabat.[1] Shortly afterwards – by 1894 – Russia made Turkmenistan part of the Russian Empire.[2] While the Baháʼí Faith spread across the Russian Empire[2][3] and attracted the attention of scholars and artists,[4] the Baháʼí community in Ashgabat built the first Baháʼí House of Worship, elected one of the first Baháʼí local administrative institutions and was a center of scholarship. During the Soviet period religious persecution made the Baháʼí community almost disappear – however, Baháʼís who moved into the regions in the 1950s did identify individuals still adhering to the religion. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, Baháʼí communities and their administrative bodies started to develop across the nations of the former Soviet Union;[5] In 1994 Turkmenistan elected its own National Spiritual Assembly[6] however, laws passed in 1995 in Turkmenistan required 500 adult religious adherents in each locality for registration and no Baháʼí community in Turkmenistan could meet this requirement.[7] As of 2007 the religion had still failed to reach the minimum number of adherents to register[8] and individuals have had their homes raided for Baháʼí literature.[9]