Review of Foreigner by Peter Murphy, poet and writer

Hussein Ahdieh’s remarkable journey from a rural village in Iran to become a Dean at a New
York University is more than just another feel-good story of the American Dream at its best. It is
the story of remarkable young man who not only improved his own lot in life, but dedicated
himself to improving the lives of others. This is not just a history of the Baha’i Faith from the
point of view of a family that helped make that history. It is also an intimate look at 20th Century
American race relations from a Foreigner who helped make the American Dream achievable for
“tired, poor, and huddled masses” of Americans neglected by the country of their birth.
Hussein Ahdieh’s remarkable journey from a small village in Iran where most people were
illiterate to a Dean at a New York University is not just the extraordinary story of a hard working
immigrant achieving the American dream. It is not just a history of the founding years of the
Baha’i Faith told from the point of view of a family that helped make that history. Foreigner also
tells the story of a young man who becomes part of America’s 20th Century history as he
but a history of the founding years of The Baha’i Faith by a family that lived it.
Not just a memoir of an extraordinary person, but a history of the founding years of The Baha’i
Faith by a family that lived it.
Not just Early Baha’i history Iran, but Mid 20th Century history in US
We hosted a public discussion on science and religion with Dr. William Hatcher and Isaac Azimov.
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After a stormy Atlantic crossing, the Queen Mary entered the port of New York. Seeing the
Statue of Liberty come into view, I thought about how far I had come, and I felt close to the
millions of immigrants who had fled religious and political persecutions. Nayriz was long ago in
a faraway universe - this was a new world. 62
Most Baha’is who emigrated from Iran during the 1950s to teach the faith and fulfill the
international plans of the Baha’i Faith, but after 1979, the 16,000 or more Iranian Baha’is who
came to North America were fleeing the persecution unleashed by the Islamic Revolution. The
town of Nayriz was virtually depopulated of Baha’is after 1979 with only a few impoverished
Baha’i families remaining because they could not afford to leave. 62
After I arrived in the U.S. in 1961, my first shock was realizing that I had made a mistake when
applying to colleges. The employees at the YMCA where I was staying pointed out that though I
thought I had applied to ‘Harvard,’ I had, in fact, applied to ‘Howard,’ a name that sounded
identical to my Persian ears. Howard University, though, did not have a nuclear engineering
program - a field I had chosen because it seemed so contemporary and cutting edge, even
though I had no real idea what it meant. I did not attend Howard since it did not have the
program I thought I was interested in pursuing, 62
And I missed my family terribly. The only other foreign students at Saint Michael’s were 150
Hungarian refugees from the 1956 uprising. The cafeteria was the most foreign place of all to a boy
from a town without even a streetlight. There was a spigot from which boundless amounts of fresh
milk poured out when I depressed the handle. Delighted but confused, I walked out back to see the
cows that were dispensing this copious amount of free milk. In Nayriz a small bucket of fresh milk
was a treat. Even more so was chicken, and here at this college, all I had to do to get some was walk
up to the server and stick out my plate, whereupon a piece of hot fried chicken appeared. Students
laughed at my foreign ways as they watched me pour tea into a saucer and then slurp it with sugar
between my teeth, which is the Iranian custom. The college dean had to inform me that I must not
hold hands with a male friend on campus which, though a customary act of friendship in Iran,
would be misinterpreted and was not socially acceptable in a small, American town. 63
I may have missed my true calling of being a stand-up comedian. Some friends and I ventured over
to the Improv Comedy Club on the West Side where they proceeded to tell the manager that I was
from another country and could tell jokes. The manager got on stage and announced that
‘Jose’ - that was me - was going to come up next. I got up there, told a few stories, and got laughs.
The manager wanted me to come back and do sets between the regular comics, but this was not a
respectable job for a young Persian man. 65
The sense of humor which I had inherited from my grandfather and great-grandfather helped me
put all these challenges and setbacks into perspective. This made me socially popular at school
which gave me a psychological boost. I also found myself turning more to my faith. 69
Attending Baha’i meetings in my new country enriched my spiritual life; I even dreamed of the faith.
In one dream I was bicycling with Baha’u’llah, and whenever we came to a street light that was
burned out, I replaced it. In another, ‘Abdu’l-Baha and I were teaching people about the Baha’i faith
and came upon a big meeting hall. We entered and ‘Abdu’l-Baha spoke to those assembled, but the
whole time I was hoping he’d mention what a good job we’d done teaching the Faith. I dreamed of
our beloved Shoghi Effendi as well. He was riding on a fancy motorcycle and came to a sickly boy
with a skin infection around his head whom I had known in Nayriz. This unfortunate boy was very
shy and tended to stay indoors. Shoghi Effendi stopped the motorbike, reached out his hand, and
touched the boy’s head, healing him instantly. 70
The Civil Rights Movement also appealed to us as young Persians who hoped to create a more open,
democratic, and egalitarian society in Iran. I joined a group of Persian friends driving to the March
on Washington in 1963. We had no money for a motel, so we slept in the car. We wanted to be a
part of this exciting moment in history. We witnessed what would later come to be seen as the
iconic moment of the emerging Civil Rights Movement. 72