Pouri Habibi was born in Hamadan, Iran, in 1925. Both her mother and father were Bahá’ís, and her father Eliahou Azadeh served as Secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of Hamadan for many years, with responsibility for direct correspondence with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá about the affairs of the Faith. Pouri felt very proud of her father when she learned that a Bahá’i researcher working on another project at the British Museum in London had found correspondence between him and the Beloved Master in Haifa. Pouri was the third child in a family of five sisters and one brother, born into a middle-class background, her father engaged in business. She suffered with amoebic dysentery as a child. It was only after some years that her condition was diagnosed, by Professor Hakim, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran, a famed doctor who was later martyred for his faith during the early years of the Islamic Revolution.  Pouri and her two elder sisters were fortunate enough to attend Bahá’í primary and secondary schools for girls in Hamadán, later closed during a period of more intense persecution of the Bahá’í community.

As a youth, Pouri attended moral education classes tutored by Mr ‘Ali Nakhjaváni (former member of the Universal House of Justice) in Tehran after the family moved there in 1934/35. She volunteered to teach literacy classes whilst residing in a village outside Tehran, but had to cut short her period of service due to contracting smallpox.

She continued to be actively involved in teaching children’s classes into her twenties; a class photograph was taken in 1945.

Later, in Tehran, she met Mr Habib Habibi, an active Bahá’í and business acquaintance of her father, who had relocated to Manchester, England. They married on 2 November 1950. Three days later, Pouri and Habib moved to Manchester on a foggy November day. Whilst she was fairly proficient in English on her arrival, Pouri was happy to form friendships with Iranians who had already settled in Manchester, such as the family of Mr Albert Joseph (Ibrahim Youseph) and his brothers. She quickly integrated with the respected Bahá’í community, later serving on its Local Spiritual Assembly and opening her new home to firesides and other teaching activity. Pouri became officially naturalised British in 1965, and became English in her outlook over the years, proudly retaining her Cambridge University Certificate in English, which she acquired in Tehran in 1948.

Pouri gave birth to her first child, Ramin in 1952, an added joy to her caring for her stepson Jamshid (Jimmy) who was attending boarding school in England at the time. With great happiness her daughter Sheralyn was born in 1954, followed by another son, Mark in 1961. Her home in Didsbury, South Manchester was a focal centre of Bahá’í activities and she hosted many distinguished visitors and travel teachers passing through the area. At the same time, Pouri’s devotion and support of her children as they grew up and attended boarding school was always at the forefront of her mind. It gave her great joy that they in turn married and gave her seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

In the early 1980s, Pouri decided to pioneer from Stockport, where she had settled, to Stafford, a goal area during the Seven Year Plan (1979-86). In recognition of her commitment to sharing her Faith with friends and neighbours, she was appointed to membership of the Regional Teaching Committee and played a prominent role in organising local Bahá’í activities. It was a pattern of life she continued when she moved to Brixworth, Northamptonshire in 1983 to be closer to her younger sister Shahin and family. Pouri joined Kevin and Mina Beint, who had moved to Brixworth a few years earlier, and together they hosted Bahá’í activities in their homes. The small community grew in size when Alfred Sharpe, together with Pouri’s daughter Sheralyn, relocated to Brixworth with her two daughters, Michele and Danielle. Daventry District achieved its Spiritual Assembly status and Pouri was always a member. When the NSA changed the boundaries, Brixworth was able to maintain its Spiritual Assembly with just nine adult Baha’is, but Alfred had to move away and the Assembly lapsed to group status.

Pouri integrated into Brixworth village life, helping at Age Concern events at care homes, WRVS in hospitals, Meals on Wheels for the elderly and infirm, and also becoming a member of the Gardening Club. These voluntary activities reflected her deep sense of service, particularly to those less fortunate than herself. Having a friendship with a local lady whose daughter was the editor of the local newspaper, ‘The Bugle’, Pouri was interviewed about her life and her faith which was covered extensively in a published article.

She was also dedicated to her market research work which she undertook for nearly 30 years as a field researcher. The role required her to conduct readership or other surveys at interviewees’ own homes, sometimes at night time, and her bold and engaging nature led to a successful career with various companies in market research. Her son Mark and daughter Sheralyn sometimes accompanied her on these trips. Sheralyn recalls a story about Pouri arriving at a particularly rough housing estate in Northamptonshire at night time and being politely escorted back to her car by a heavily tattooed gentleman who was concerned for her safety! She also gave an excellent lecture on market research to Sheralyn’s Access students in a college sociology class.

Pouri was privileged to have been a pilgrim and visitor to the Bahá’í Holy Places in Israel in 1982, 1998 and 2004, and to have attended the Bahá’í World Congress in London in 1963. She enjoyed attending International Bahá’í conferences such as Nairobi in 1976 and Dublin in 1982 (accompanied on both occasions by her close friend Shahla Haqjoo) and Moscow in 1992. In 1999 Pouri was a short-term pioneer to Cyprus (where her son Ramin and his wife Lesley had pioneered for 30 years) and participated there in teaching and proclamation activities. She was overjoyed whenever she was able to meet up with her family around the world, for instance seeing her daughter Sheralyn in Australia and son Mark in Kenya in 1985. Seeing family from Iran for the first time in many years in 2009 whilst on pilgrimage to Bahá’í Holy Places in Turkey was also a special treat.

Her dear friend Shahla shared a memory of Pouri’s final days: ‘I went to visit her for the last time.  She was surrounded by her family and we all had a few prayers together. When it was time for me to get the train back to Stockport, Pouri’s nephew who lived near my home in Stockport came to me to say “My aunt has arranged for you to return home in my car”.  This thoughtfulness indicates the person Pouri was, despite being in her last days, still thinking of helping others. To this day, when I think of this loving act of hers, tears roll down on my face.  A few days later I was at her very dignified and spiritual funeral, attended by many family and friends who knew her and loved her’.

Pouri was stoical and happily acquiescent through her final illness, remarkably cheerfully saying in Farsi in her final moments “Khodahfez man raftam!” which translates roughly as “Goodbye, I’m out of here”!  She was also observed raising her hands three times above her head, possibly in a gesture of greeting or welcome.

The Universal House of Justice wrote the following message in her honour:

…You are assured of its loving supplications at the Sacred Threshold for the progress of her illumined soul throughout the worlds of God…

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