A Conversation on Open Wide the Doors

Panel Discussion
A Conversation on Open Wide the Doors: Storytelling, Memory, Agency, and Resilience

6 Oct, 2026, 14 to 15.30
Online Zoom link: https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/63873181730
Meeting ID: 638 7318 1730

SELMA warmly invites students, researchers, scholars, and members of the wider academic community to join a conversation with Dr. Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, one of the English translators of Open Wide the Doors, the remarkable memoir of renowned Bahá’í poet and writer Mahvash Sabet, whose years of imprisonment in Iran testify to the persecution she endured for her faith.

The conversation will explore how personal storytelling can preserve memory, reclaim agency, and sustain human dignity under conditions of oppression and uncertainty. We will also reflect on the experiences of the Bahá’í community in Iran, the role of testimony in challenging official narratives, and the ways resilience can emerge through dignity, compassion, and human connection.

The discussion will draw on selected passages from the book and explore broader themes of gender, minority experiences, exclusion, agency, resilience, and the power of narrative.

The discussion will be hosted by SELMA board member, Dr. Raha Sabet Sarvestany.