[3] Though the population had perhaps reached thousands, under the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the harsh rule of the Taliban the Baháʼís lost the right to have any institutions and many fled.
[8] ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote a series of letters, or tablets, to the followers of the religion in the United States in 1916-1917 suggesting Baháʼís take the religion to many places; these letters were compiled together in the book titled Tablets of the Divine Plan but were delayed in being presented in the United States until 1919 — after the end of World War I and the Spanish flu.
[9] One tablet says in part: O that I could travel, even though on foot and in the utmost poverty, to these regions, and, raising the call of Yá Baháʼu'l-Abhá in cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans, promote the divine teachings!
Please God, ye may achieve it.… …if some teachers go to other islands and other parts, such as the continent of Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, also to Japan, Asiatic Russia, Korea, French Indochina, Siam, Straits Settlements, India, Ceylon and Afghanistan, most great results will be forthcoming.
Other pioneers failed to remain during the period of the World Wars, however a Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1948 in Kabul.
[13][dead link] However the Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on the World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 15,300 Baháʼís were again present in Afghanistan in 2005[14] and 16,541 in 2010.
[16] According to the US State Department, in 2007 the General Directorate of Fatwas and Accounts under the Supreme Court issued a ruling on the status of the Baháʼí Faith, declaring it to be distinct from Islam and a form of blasphemy, affirmed that all Muslims who convert to the religion were apostates from Islam, declared all followers of the religion to be infidels and hazards the status of marriages of Baháʼís.