Unfolding Destiny

Abbás Afnán was a student in Paris and came to England as a pioneer to Africa for the Two Year Plan. Shomais ‘Alá’í was the 488 second Persian Bahá’í student to come to Northampton to train as a nurse and arrived in 1948. They married at Summer School, Cottingham, Yorkshire in 1951 and pioneered soon afterwards—Shomais to Ethiopia and Abbás to Persia. Abbás joined Shomais in Africa in 1953. They returned to England in 1958 and opened the town of Burnley where an Assembly was formed in 1961. In 1975 Abbás pioneered to Newfoundland and Shomais joined him in July 1976. Abbás was a member of the National Assembly from 1964 until his pioneer move, and Shomais was active in United Nations’ affairs. Shomais toured Persia in 1971 at the request of the Universal House of Justice, was one of the representatives of the Bahá’í International Community at the International Women’s Year Convention in Mexico in 1975 and travelled extensively in the British Isles in 1978–1979.