Baháʼí Faith in Vietnam
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The introduction of the Baháʼí Faith in Vietnam first occurred in the 1920s, not long after French Indochina was mentioned by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá as a potential destination for Baháʼí teachers.[1] After a number of brief visits from travelling teachers throughout the first half of the 20th century, the first Baháʼí group in Vietnam was established in Saigon in 1954, with the arrival of Shirin Fozdar, a Baháʼí teacher from India. The 1950s and 1960s were marked by periods of rapid growth, mainly in South Vietnam; despite the ongoing war affecting the country, the Baháʼí population surged to around 200,000 adherents by 1975. After the end of the war, Vietnam was reunified under a communist government, who proscribed the practice of the religion from 1975 to 1992, leading to a sharp drop in community numbers. Relations with the government gradually improved, however, and in 2007 the Baháʼí Faith was officially registered, followed by its full legal recognition a year later.[2][3] As of 2012, it was reported that the Baháʼí community comprised about 8,000 followers.[4]