Zhinous Nemat Mahmoudi

Zhinus Nemat Mahmoudi or Jin(o)us Ni (August 8, 1929 – December 27, 1981) was an Iranian meteorologist who was a follower of the Baháʼí Faith and a member of its National Spiritual Assembly for Iran. She rose to lead the Iranian meteorological service. After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, state-sanctioned persecution of Baháʼís escalated, with her husband executed in 1980, then her arrest and execution in 1981.

Life

Mahmoudi was born in Tehran. One of her parents was a teacher and the other published a magazine. The magazine, Tehran Mosavar, was well established and popular during the reign of the Shah of Iran.

She was intrigued by science and information. She formulated a plan to try and gather together knowledge for safekeeping. Her plan was to use microfilm so that the information would be preserved.

At university she studied physics and meteorology and this led to work in weather forecasting. She was Iran’s first female meteorologist. The whereabouts of her grave were given to her family later.

Legacy In 2018, the US House of Representatives was asked to pass a House Resolution (HR274) on the 36th anniversary of Mrs. Jinous Mahmoudi's death. The resolution "condemns the government of Iran’s state-sponsored persecution of its Bahai minority".