I don't know. I'm just reading... you know part of investigating things on my own. Here's something I found....
A Letter Of Protest To UHJ Member By Grand Daughter Of Abdul-Baha
In the letter she makes claims that members of the family were not covenant-breakers.
My maternal grandparents, who were Shoghi Effendi’s parents, his aunts and their husbands, their children and grandchildren, my own parents, aunt and both paternal and maternal uncles and their children -they were all very much a part of my life and my existence. I knew a great deal about them, and most of all, I knew a great deal about my parents, Nayer and Rouhanguise Afnan, about my husband, Hassan Shahid, and myself, Bahiyeh Afnan Shahid...
As you fully recount in Parts 1 and 2 of your book, both the periods of Baha’u’llah and the Master were rife with the problems created by the active, aggressive and deliberate opposition created by members of the family who opposed them during those periods.
Very well aware of all these matters, none, and I repeat none, of the members of the family that you deal with in your chapter, wanted either to question, undermine, or disturb the Guardianship of Shoghi Effendi, or hinder the execution of the big trust placed in his hands by the will of the Master. For years they helped him in all ways and in different capacities, until Shoghi Effendi saw fit to distance each and every one of them from the Cause and the community! You only have his version of why he considered them unworthy and systematically condemned them. But, and here is the point that I wish to underline: every one of them saw fit to withdraw quietly, without creating any trouble or difficulty. Not one of them, beginning with his parents, and down to my generation, raised a voice in dissent or made an unseemly move. In the interest of the Cause and its unity, matters as dear to their hearts, as they were to the hearts of Baha’u’llah and the Master, none of them disputed these verdicts. But this silence should not be misrepresented as an admission of guilt.
I do not know where you get your information about the family of Shoghi Effendi? But in your description of their behavior and motives I could detect no relationship to the facts of the lives of the people you so carelessly write about. Had you taken the trouble to contact some of them? You, like all scholars, would have found that history is a many-faceted thing. Even a half-hearted effort at research into the lives, characters, and motives of those mentioned, would have quickly shown that the facile, careless and carefree condemnation that you scatter around is rather rudely denuded of any relation to fact and reality.
Anyway, like I said, I don't know who's right and who's wrong. I just looking things up and reading what I find. If you have any comments on this person and what she says, I'll be glad to listen.
Oh, and here is an article about the handwriting expert and Abdul Baha's Will...
Dr. Charles Ainsworth Mitchell (20 November 1867 5 January 1948) was a British chemist and forensic scientist...
In 1911 he was head of the inspection bureau of the Scotland Yard. He frequently served as an expert witness. In 1915, he gave testimony about the invisible ink used in the case of German spy, Anton Kuepferle.
In 1925 he analyzed documents and seals of Mary,Queen of Scots, and claimed to show that Mary was innocent of conspiracy to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England. He said that William Maitland, Mary’s secretary, forged Mary’s hand in the documents which led to Mary’s execution...
Dr. Mitchell was hired by Lady Ruth White to analyze the Will and Testament of Abdul-Baha. White opposed parts of the Will that suggested the establishment of a hierarchy in the Bahá’í Faith. His report concluded in agreement with Lady Ruth Whites allegations, that the document was a forgery. Ruth White placed a copy of Dr Mitchell’s signed report of the handwriting analysis done by the latter with the U.S. Library of Congress in the year 1930.
