Among those principles are the elimination of the gap between poor and rich, the importance of education, and recognition that science and religion can coexist. Baha'is are expected to embrace chastity and monogamy, pray daily, and observe an annual period of fasting. The faith has no clergy but is governed by elected bodies. Baha'is worldwide run environmental and economic development projects as well as schools and literacy programs. In Boston, the Baha'i community runs a school that teaches English as a second language.
Many practitioners find the Baha'i faith's utopian goal particularly appealing.
Although Shakib's parents were Baha'is, that did not automatically make Shakib a Baha'i. Baha'i requires its followers to choose the faith. Baha'i has been one of the fastest-growing religions of the past century. We don't expect the achievement of what sounds like a utopian world to happen any time soon. It will take several hundred years before we even begin to see glimmers of solutions to the world's problems.