Qudsiyyih Khanum Ashraf (Ghodsia Ashraf Khanum) 1889-1976

Ghodsia Ashraf Khanum was first Iranian woman to undertake higher education in the West (Chicago).

“Some of the boys and girls attending the Tarbiyat schools received scholarship assistance from the Persian-American Educational Society, a charitable organization formally established in North America in January 1910 as a result of efforts by a number of Iranian and American Bahá’ís. A young Bahá’í from Tehran, Qudsiyyih Khanum Ashraf (Ghodsia Ashraf Khanum), the first Iranian woman to undertake higher education in the West, addressed the society’s inaugural meeting in Washington DC in 1911.” —Bahá’í Encyclopedia Project

Qudsiyyih later worked at the Tarbiyat Bahá’í School in Iran with such notable Bahá’ís as Dr. Susan Moody, Lillian Kappes, and Dr. Clock.

She published “Women and Social Life in Persia” in Star of the West, Vol. 16, p.650.