In 2024 The Department of Middle Eastern Studies and the Humanities Division received a generous gift from the Ayman family to support the learning of Persian language and literature at the University of Chicago to honor their mother Lily Ayman's legacy. This gift will support the students of Persian language and literature in verious ways, including the annual Persian Student Essay Prize, student research, student research-associated travel, student internships or other professional development, student experiential learning opportunities, as well as any programming and/or events that will encourage student learning of Persian language and literature.
About
"Lily Ayman (Ahy), an Iranian Baha’i, was the founder of Iran’s Children’s Book Council and a scholar of children’s literature. She was born in Tehran on May 17, 1929. Lily was a distinguished educator, author, translator and community organizer for the global Persian community. She was a lover of Iran and its culture, dedicated to elevating the global impact of Persian literature and language.
Lily studied philosophy and pedagogy at Tehran University’s Faculty of Literature. In 1949, she translated a book titled Educating Difficult Children from French to Persian, which was published in 1949. From 1948 to 1950, she taught history and geography at Anooshirvan Dadgar High School for girls. She had started her postgraduate studies at the University of London’s Institute of Education and she continued them at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
In 1954, the Ayman family returned to Iran, and Lily was appointed by the Ministry of Education as co-director of the Center for Professional Guidance at the Department of Planning and Research. That same year, she founded the first summer school for children.
In 1955, Lily joined the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement and the International Committee for the Evaluation of Reading Comprehension, while teaching children’s literature at Tehran University’s Faculty of Educational Sciences.
In 1959, after receiving a grant from the Ford Foundation, Lily went to New York City and, at Columbia University’s Teachers College, studied a course in children’s literature and children’s textbooks which she completed in 1960. While in the US, she became more familiar with American educational institutions and devised the idea that Iran needed an independent institution for children’s literature.
She wrote three books, including a collection of Persian lullabies, nursery rhymes, and games, to be used by young Iranian parents who had been forced to leave their country behind. And for some years she taught Persian at the University of Chicago and continued her cooperation with UNESCO and international charitable organizations.
Lily Ayman (Ahi) passed away at the age 89 on September 7, 2018." (https://iranwire.com/en/bahais-of-iran/115373-lily-ayman-ahi-the-bahai-mother-of-persian-textbooks/)
To honor Lily’s legacy, her children created the Fund to promote the learning of Persian language and literature.
To learn more about Lily Ayman in Persian, visit this link.
Persian Interviews: