Mohammad Bahmanbeigi

Who is Mohammad Bahmanbeigi?

Mohammad Bahmanbeigi, sometimes rendered Mohammad Bahman Beigi, is a pioneer of education for nomadic communities in Iran.

Bahmanbeigi was born into the Iranian Qashqai tribe in the southern region of Fars. As the son of the tribe's chief Bahmanbeigi was well educated, attending university in Tehran and learning European languages. In adulthood he relocated to Shiraz and, concerned about the illiteracy still prevalent in his native region, founded a school for nomadic communities in 1951. His education program was later extended to other nomadic regions of Iran.

Bahmanbeigi and his work have been the subject of two films. 2003's White Tents, by Kamran Heidari, competed in the Documentary category at the 2005 Tehran Short Film Competition. In 2008, Iranian director Mohammad-Ali Talebi announced plans to film a second Bahmanbeigi biopic.

In 2005 the Iranian Academy of the Arts publicized the holding of a "glorification ceremony" to commemorate Bahmanbeigi's works.

Bahmanbeigi is the author of the titles Bokharaye man iele man and Agar gharghaj nabood.

On 1 May 2010 Mohammad Bahmanbeigi died in Iran-Shiraz.