Baháʼí Faith in Turkmenistan

[7] As of 2007 the religion had still failed to reach the minimum number of adherents to register[8] and individuals have had their homes raided for Baháʼí literature.

[10] One of the most prominent members of the community was Mirza Abu'l-Faḍl Gulpaygani, an Apostle of Baháʼu'lláh, who lived in Ashgabat off and on from 1889 to 1894.

[17] Initially the religion still grew in organization when the election of the regional National Assembly of the Baháʼís of the Caucasus and Turkistan in 1925.

The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake seriously damaged the building and rendered it unsafe; the heavy rains of the following years weakened the structure.

[14] With the Soviet ban on religion, the Baháʼís, strictly adhering to their principle of obedience to legal government, abandoned its administration and its properties were nationalized.

In the case of Ashgabat, Baháʼí sources indicate[19] on 5 February the members of the assembly, leaders of the community and some general members of the community to a total of 500 people were arrested, homes were searched and all records and literature were confiscated (claiming they were working for the advantage of foreigners), and sometimes forced to dig their own graves as part of the interrogation.

In 1953 Baháʼís started to move to the Soviet Republics in Asia, after the head of the religion at the time, Shoghi Effendi, initiated a plan called the Ten Year Crusade.

Through the rest of 1990 several Local Spiritual Assemblies formed across the Soviet Union including Moscow, Ulan-Ude, Kazan, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Leningrad, and Murmansk.

[23] promulgating the promotion of female education as a priority concern,[24] That involvement was given practical expression by creating schools, agricultural coops, and clinics.

[23] The religion entered a new phase of activity when a message of the Universal House of Justice dated 20 October 1983 was released.

[9] As of 2007, under these harsh conditions, the Baháʼí community in Turkmenistan was unable to reach the required number of adult believers to be recognized by the government as a religion.

[8] The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 1000 Baháʼís across Turkmenistan in 2005.