May 11. On this date in 2007, Malietoa Tanumafili II died. He was the first head of state and reigning constitutional monarch to convert to the Bahá’í Faith.

 

May 11. On this date in 2007, Malietoa Tanumafili II died. He was the first head of state and reigning constitutional monarch to convert to the Bahá’í Faith.

 

While the Administrative Order publicly eschews involvement in partisan politics, it has no reservations about routinely using its media outlets to proudly tout unelected royal leaders who are Bahá'í.

 

For example, on April 24, 2017, the Bahá'í World News Service published a story about Djaouga Abdoulaye, who "became a Baha’i in the 1980s when the Faith initially came to Benin." The news report states that he was enthroned High Chief in July of 2016, assuming a "position of moral and customary authority for the approximately 100,000 Fulani living in the area."

 

Interestingly, while Bahá'ís frequently refer to Queen Marie of Romania as "the first member of a royal family to embrace the Bahá’í Faith," Queen Marie's daughter disputes this claim: "It is perfectly true that my mother, Queen Marie, did receive Miss Martha Root several times.....She came at the moment when we were undergoing very great family and national stress. At such a moment it was natural that we were receptive to any kind of spiritual message, but it is quite incorrect to say that my mother or any of us at any time contemplated becoming a member of the Baha’i faith."

 

While rare and not promoted in the media outlets of the Administrative Order, there have been Bahá'ís who have been elected to office, such as Ted Livingston, who was the first Bahá’í in the United States to be the mayor of a city when he was elected Mayor of Cottonwood Falls, Kansas.