Career
Dehqani-Tafti was the first ethnic Persian to become a bishop of Iran since the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century. In May 1980, Dehqani-Tafti"s 24-year-old son, Bahram, was murdered by Iranian government agents. Hassan Barnaba Dehqani-Tafti was born in the small village of Taft, near the city of Yazd, in central Iran.
Dehqani-Tafti attended Stuart Memorial College in Isfahan, before moving on to Tehran University, where he was trained to become a teacher.
He served as an officer in the Iranian Imperial Army from 1943 until 1945. His knowledge of English led him to become an interpreter for British officials in the Middle East.
Following the end of World World War II, Dehqani-Tafti worked under Anglican bishop William Thompson as a layman in the Diocese of Iran for two years. Dehqani-Tafti decided to become an Anglican priest.
He left Iran in 1947 to attend Ridley Hall, Cambridge, a theological college, to prepare for his ordination.
He spent ten years at the Isfahan parish and also did some missionary work within Iran. However, Dehqani-Tafti did not stay long at Saint Paul"son He was appointed the Anglican Bishop in Iran to succeed Bishop William Thompson.
(Dehqani-Tafti had married Thompson"s daughter in an English-Iranian wedding nine years before his ascension as bishop).
Dehqani-Tafti became the first ethnic Iranian Christian bishop in Iran since the 7th Century. As bishop, he concentrated on the growth of the Anglican education system and schools in Iran.
He established Iranian secondary schools for girls and boarding schools for boys.
