Modern schools and new educational system in contemporary Iran (Criticizing the Baha’i claim in this regard)

Baha’i writers and missionaries claim that Baha’is pay special attention to education and that Baha’is are the pioneers and the first providers of modern science education and pioneers in the establishment of modern schools in Iran. However, the study of the history of the establishment of modern schools in Iran shows that the background of Iranians familiarity with European-style modern schools and the teaching of new sciences and the history of the establishment of modern schools in Iran are about eighty years before the establishment of the first modern-style Baha’i school in Iran, and this Baha’is claim is incorrect. In this study, it was found that, firstly, the familiarity of Baha’is with modern sciences and new schools has nothing to do with the teachings and writings of the Bab, Bahaullah and Abdu’l-Baha’; Rather, Abdu’l-Bahá got acquainted with these schools by studying the publications and observing the European-style schools in the territory; Therefore, the discussion of Baha’i pioneers in the establishment of new schools has no place. Secondly, the main motivation of the Baha’i leaders to establish the school was to teach and convert Muslim students and influence their parents. Thirdly, because the Iranian Baha’is were not very familiar with new sciences, they asked for help from the American Baha’i National Assembly to establish and strengthen their school, and they sent some migrant women missionaries to Iran.