Despite all the Trauma, Lily Taimoorazy continued her mission for Assyria!
By Juliana Taimoorazy
Lily Avraham was born in Urmia, Iran, to Younan Avraham of Sireh and Mariam Givargis of Anhar, in May of 1900. Her father, an educated and a progressive Assyrian traveled to the United States in 1902 to attend a theological seminary and, as a result, obtained US citizenship. After graduating from the seminary in 1906, he returned to Urmia and co-founded the prestigious secular newspaper Kokhva (= “the Star”), along with Rabi Yokhannan Moshie, also serving as the magazines treasurer.
Upon his return to Iran, and seeing the difficult living conditions in Urmia, Mr. Avraham decided to immigrate to the United States with his family. He sent his son, Joseph and his sister, who was nurse, to America with the hopes that he and the rest of the family would soon follow. However, World War I and the great Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Genocide halted his plans. Instead, he rescued approximately 2,000 Assyrians who had fled Hakkari in southeast Turkey by providing them with a place to live on his extensive property in Sireh. When many of the refugees fell ill, Lily, who was only 14 years old, helped nurse as many as she could. Unfortunately, Younan Avraham also became ill during this time and passed away in 1915. This was an utter tragedy for Lily who was very close to her father.
Prior to Younan’s passing, he advised Lily to educate herself and delay marriage, which was unusual advice during that time. Following her father’s wishes, Lily continued her education at the Fiske Seminary, an American Christian missionary school for girls in Urmia, which her mother had also attended. Because of the war, for a period of time, the students of Fiske had to be moved to Tabriz to continue their education. Shortly before her graduation, an Assyrian physician named Hakim (doctor) Benyamin Taimoorazy, a graduate of Moscow Medical University was sent on a mission to his hometown of Chaharbakhsh in Urmia and, upon seeing Lily, he decided to send word to her mother of his intentions of marrying her daughter. Lily’s mother accepted the offer on behalf of her daughter and asked Hakim Benyamin to take her to Russia immediately after her graduation to save her from the dangers of the war. At the wedding, the famous Assyrian general, Agha Petros of Baz was the best man along with his brother who stood in the place of Lily’s brother, Joseph. Agha Petros and his wife, Zarifa Khanum, gave the newlyweds a peacock as a wedding gift.
Soon after the wedding, Hakim Benyamin took Lily to Tbilisi, Georgia, where he had built a life with his siblings. While in Georgia, Lily Taimoorazy earned a 2-year college degree and also taught the Assyrian language to elementary level students. The Assyrian physician and nationalist, Dr. Freydoon Bet-Abraham “Atouraya” who was one of Dr. Taimoorazy’s nephews, frequently visited the Taimoorazy’s family home, where they would often have a lively discussion about the fate of Assyria. His Bible, which is now in the possession of his great-niece in New York, still bears notes and insight that both he and Lily had written on the pages of the Old Testament.
While in Tbilisi, the Taimoorazy couple had four children; two daughters and two sons. Unfortunately, their eldest, a daughter, lost her life as an infant. In 1937, Hakim Benyamin was sent into exile in Iran along with his three children, Ophelia, Tamraz and Sardanapal, while Lily was arrested and sent to a Gulag. One year later, upon her release, she too was sent back to her birthplace in Iran. By then, Hakim Benyamin had started a successful medical practice in Urmia. Although he suffered from epilepsy for most of his life, in the latter years, he also developed a heart condition. At the time of his passing in 1954, church bells were ordered to be rung throughout the village of Chahrbakhsh, in honor of an Assyrian doctor who had cared for and saved countless lives in Urmia. His legacy continues through his grandson, Dr. Benjamin Taimoorazy who followed in his grandfather’s footsteps. Dr. Taimoorazy currently practices medicine in both Illinois and California. He is one of the top seven doctors in pain management in the United States today, and is also an author and an inventor.
After the death of her husband, Rabita Lily continued her education. In 1957, the Asian Free University granted her an honorary PhD for her work on ancient Iranian relics and monuments. In addition to her academic pursuits, Mrs. Taimoorazy also used her talents to assist the Assyrian community culturally and academically. She founded and choreographed the Shamiram Folkloric Dance Group in 1957. This Dance Group appeared on Iranian and European television channels, performed throughout the globe and won the patronage of the Iranian Ministry of Fine Arts. Additionally, the group performed at two elaborate celebrations in Iran: the 1967 coronation of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the 1971 commemoration of the 2,500-year-old anniversary of the Persian Empire. Because of her efforts, Taimoorazy is often called the “Mother of Assyrian Folk Dance.” Philimon Darmo, a famous Radio personality in Sydney, Australia, gave her the title, “Queen of the Assyrian Heritage in the 20th Century”.
Rabita Lily introduced Assyrian dances to many in America and in Europe. In 1962, she traveled to Italy, where her group performed for the country’s president in Rome, as well as in the famous opera house of LaScala in Milan. Unfortunately, this group dissolved in 1980, when the Islamic Republic of Iran forbade dancing throughout the country. Rabita Lily also assisted the Assyrian community by raising approximately $2,000 for a new Assyrian school in Tehran called “Shushan.” She wrote poetry and children’s stories in the Assyrian language, and also translated many Russian books into the Assyrian language. She has multiple notebooks she has left behind which bear her memories of the First World War.
Throughout her life, Rabita Lily was no stranger to tragedy, from losing her beloved father in 1915 to having her mother, youngest brother and two of her aunts slaughtered by the Turks and the Kurds in Iran, and losing her husband at a young age. But most painful of all was the sudden death of her youngest son, Sardanapal, in 1980, which left her utterly devastated. Despite all of this trauma in her life, she continued her mission for Assyria. Rabita Lily Taimoorazy passed away in Tehran in 1992 but her legacy continues to this day. The Taimoorazy’s granddaughter, Juliana Taimoorazy, was nominated for the 2021 and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize for founding and overseeing the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, an organization that provides support to Christian refugees in the Middle East. She is the first Assyrian woman to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
In her autobiography, Rabita Lily gave an important message to the next generation. She said: “To the children I say this; if you stop thinking your private thoughts in the Assyrian language, then you can be sure you have lost your identity.”