Dearest Avon, whom we all know and love, embodied grace, joy, and a full-hearted commitment to peacebuilding.  I am grateful for her early encouragement, at age 12, to constructively engage in peace-building based on an understanding that peace “is not only possible but inevitable”1 requiring the spiritual transformation of individuals and communities. Avon’s pure soul no doubt will continue to inspire others as a “leaven that leaveneth the world of being, and furnisheth the power through which the arts and wonders of the world are made manifest.”(Baha’u’llah) We pray that she may “enter the garden of happiness, [and be] cleanse[d] … with the most pure water”2 as her soul advances in the world of light.

~Shahla Maghzi-Ali