Zehra on Sunday. (PTI)

Bhopal, June 7: When a woman in burqa rose to speak in Bhopal’s Rabindra Bhavan today and asked men and women to follow Mahatma Gandhi in their everyday struggles, the audience burst into applause.

The Gandhian reference had come from Zehra Mustafawi Khomeini, daughter of the late Iranian spiritual leader, Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeini.

Zehra, 59, who teaches philosophy at Tehran University, spoke for over half an hour in Farsi while an interpreter translated her words into a mix of Hindi and Urdu. The soft-spoken daughter of the revolutionary leader did not make a single reference to violence or the need to take up arms against injustice.

“Both Gandhiji and my father led a peaceful struggle. Both represented humanism and stood for the rights of the poor and underprivileged. The revolution in Iran in 1979 took place without any bloodshed,” she said.

She described the Iranian revolution as a “perfect model of splendid, humane and divine life… for all the peoples of the world”.

While Zehra repeatedly referred to the Ayatollah in her speech, her views about Israel differed from her father’s. Khomeini had said “Israel must be wiped off the map”; his daughter took a more Gandhian view.

“The best way to beat Israel is to boycott its goods. The economic boycott will force Israel to see reason. I appeal to all those who stand by human rights, peace and justice to isolate Israel through peaceful means,” she said.

Zehra was friendly and warm, unlike her stern, aloof father who would move “through the halls of the madresehs never smiling at anybody or anything”. She looked appreciative when naats (religious poetry) were being recited in Urdu, which she is said to understand.

She may indeed have an India connection ---- the Ayatollah’s paternal grandfather, Sayid Ahmad Musawi, is believed to have spent several years in Lucknow.

Zehra was in Bhopal to attend a meeting in memory of Bibi Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad and regarded by Muslims as an exemplar for all women. Fatima was married to Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and the fourth and final Rashidun (rightly guided Caliphs).

The philosophy professor, who is married to a colleague and has a son and a daughter, had arrived in India at the invitation of a few cultural-religious organisations, said the Iran embassy’s cultural counsellor, Karima Najafi, who is accompanying her.

Zehra visited Bhopal’s Iranian settlement, where some 200-300 Iranians live in mostly slum-like conditions, before leaving for Delhi where she will spend the next three days.

This was a rare public appearance by Khomeini’s daughter. Although women had participated in the 1979 Iran revolution, they have had only a token presence in the country’s public life under the three decades of rule by conservative clerics. Women hold just a handful of parliament seats and two cabinet posts.

The outside world has little clue what the wives and daughters of Iran’s premier politicians look like. Most Presidents, including the moderate Khatimi, kept their spouses out of the spotlight.

Zehra shared the dais with rebel Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, Madhya Pradesh governor Balram Jakhar and noted Shia cleric Kalbe Jawad. The programme was organised by poet Manzar Bhopali with help from Al Jawad Foundation of Lucknow and Bhopal-based organisation Hum Ek Hain.