Parvin Vakili

Parvin Vakili was born on May 31, 1959, in Yazd, Iran, to Maliheh Behmardi (nee Siavashi) and Foozi Behmardi, dedicated servants of The Baha’i Faith. While her parents served as Baha’i missionaries in wartime Lebanon, Parvin and her two siblings, Fares and Sholeh, were sent to attend school in London. After completing high school, Parvin came to the United States and attended Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, eventually becoming a teacher there specializing in mathematics. Throughout her life, Parvin maintained this passion for teaching, the hallmark of which was her incredible warmth, kindness, and patience.

In 1988, Parvin met Abbas Vakili in Baltimore, Maryland through a mutual friend and they soon established a strong connection, marrying just a few short months later and settling in Atlanta before later moving to St. Simons Island, Georgia. One of the greatest kindnesses that Parvin immediately displayed was her embrace of Abbas’s eight-year-old daughter Vivian as her own. Parvin and Abbas would go on to have two more children, Vanessa and Alexander.

As a mother, Parvin was a tireless renaissance woman. She was as proficient in assisting with algebra homework as she was with sewing summer clothes and school play costumes as she was with cooking and ensuring that healthy snacks were always available and especially during late night study sessions. As her children grew up, she was frequently a confidante for them, lending a sympathetic ear as they faced life’s many obstacles. Never was she too tired to listen, and not a day went by when she didn’t reach out to make sure all three of her kids were okay. She made sure that every single day, they knew they were loved.

She was also a devoted and steadfast wife, assisting her husband with countless endeavors and always providing a positive, encouraging voice even amid life’s greatest struggles. Together, they were able to build significantly, but more importantly, they were able to serve The Baha’i Faith through various charitable ventures. Their marriage was truly analogous to the flight of a graceful bird, impossible without perfect equality and harmony between the two wings – husband and wife – as explained in The Baha’i Faith.

But her kindness was not limited to her own family. Indeed, Parvin’s benevolence was legendary and truly altruistic. She went out of her way to make everyone feel welcome, she was deeply generous even to strangers, and she helped countless people through the darkest hours of their lives. She was available to anyone and to everyone and repeatedly put the needs of others before her own – the truest definition of selflessness. And as the Baha’i writings tell us, “To be selfless is to be pure".

Parvin is predeceased by her father Foozi Behmardi and her mother Maliheh Behmardi. She is survived by her husband Abbas Vakili, her daughter Dr. Vanessa Vakili and her husband John Creel, her son Dr. Alexander Vakili and his wife Sahar Vakili (nee Entezari), her daughter Vivian Vakili and her husband Dr. Christopher Halford, her sister Sholeh Dadressan, and her brother Dr. Fares Behmardi.

We pray for the advancement of her pure soul in the heavenly realm.

The funeral will be held on Wednesday, November 12th at 2 pm at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs, Georgia.