The full 9 minute BBC segment on the Jiyo Parsi program including extended interviews with Professor Dr. Almut Hintze;...
Issues Articles
Zoroastrians in India: ‘Dating my way out of extinction’
In India, an ancient religion known as Zoroastrianism is under threat.There are fewer than 60,000 believers and their...
Parsis debate race vs religion
In February, Russian Zoroastrian Michael Chistyakov rubbed several orthodox Indian Parsi leaders the wrong way when he came to Gujarat to become a religious priest. He returned to Russia almost...
Ervad Khushru Madon Sends Mail For Support
Below is a news article about an email that Ervad Khushru Madon sent a few days ago to various news organizations and community websites. The actual contents of the email are below the article....
New Rules for Doongerwadi Funeral for Women
It will no longer be enough for Parsi-Zoroastrian women who are married to non-Parsis and want to be interred at the Towers of Silence to write an affidavit in their lifetime that they were...
Parsi special kids to have residential facility in Mumbai
Here’s good news for all Parsi parents with special kids. The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), the biggest Parsi trust in the city, plans to setup a special residential facility for the kids. By...
On new year, Delhi Parsis talk change
NEW DELHI: There are 734 Parsis in the NCR Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida. And about half of them turned up to celebrate Navroze, the Parsi New Year, at Delhi Parsi Anjuman on Thursday evening. One piece...
Eminent Parsis fight for liberal priests
Anu Aga and Dr Hector Grant, among others, to support priests who were barred from praying at the Towers of Silence by the Bombay Parsi Panchayat after they conducted Navjots of children from mixed...
Unused Urinal At Cross Maidan Behind Bhikha Behram Well Raises A Stink
Residents want the toilet block - locked in a dispute since 1996 as Parsis fear it would contaminate water in their sacred well, located at Bhikha Behram - demolished By Manoj Nair / Mumbai Mirror...
Govt scheme to arrest decline in Parsi population
Concerned over the dwindling number of Parsis, one of the five notified national minorities, Government has launched a scheme to arrest the trend of decline in their population. The Central Sector...
Is it time for an international Zarathushti referendum?
For the last 50 years, at the least, a debate is raging within our Community, between The orthodox and the reformist lobbies, leading to nowhere. By B.T. DASTUR / The Bombay Samachar Zoroastrianism,...
A Crisis for the Faithful
The Parsi bodies are piling up in India. Parsis are modern adherents of the ancient Zoroastrian faith that emerged in the 6th century B.C. in Persia, predating Christianity and Islam. According to...
Affidavit opposes Parsi woman’s plea
Two high priests of Parsi community have filed an affidavit before Gujarat high court, stating that there is no tradition where a girl marrying in another community can enjoy Parsi rights. The...
Ervad Hathiram’s Editorial on the Doongerwadi Incident
Yesterday we posted a letter from a reader regarding an incident at Doongerwadi involving two priests at a Geh Sarna ceremony. Here is a follow up post by good friend Ervad Marzban Hathiram. Besides...
Unethical Conduct at Doongerwadi
A follow up to this article is titled “Ervad Hathiram’s Editorial on the Doongerwadi Incident” The below is a letter sent to Parsi Khabar by Minoo K Vaghchhipawalla Minoo writes… Unethical...
A Navjote Ceremony with full security
Two children of a Parsi woman and her Catholic husband were initiated into the Zoroastrian community on Friday under police security as the Parsi community had objected to the Navjyot Ceremony....
The Great Parsi Gender Divide
Why Sauce For the Parsi Goose Is Not Sauce For the Parsi Gander? By Noshir H. Dadrawala Parsis have been in the National news again and as usual for all the wrong reasons. The current dispute is...
Much noise over names at Towers of Silence
Bombay Parsi Panchayet declares that funerals of woman married outside community will not be allowed at towers. After refusing permission to an inter-caste married Parsi woman to let her body be...
Valsad’s Parsi Woman Seeks Court Help to Worship
A Parsi woman married to a non-Parsi has sought the Gujarat High Court's intervention to avail the fundamental right to worship and to access the religious places of Parsis she was denied by her...
On Navroze Parsis Fight For Survival
Adil Fatakia literally lives in the past; the 65-year-old bachelor takes great pride and interest in the rich legacy of his community. In fact, he can trace his family tree 13 centuries back to when...
Matrimony: The Great Parsi Pursuit
An enterprising 55-year-old bachelor claiming to have almost made it to the portals of the Forbes list of billionaires was reluctantly but firmly refused entry to an exclusive party last Saturday....
Parsis and Yoga
Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram over at Frashogard.com makes a compelling case about Parsis and Yoga. Today’s fast paced and chemical-laden life has brought, in addition to the comforts and conveniences...
The Sandalwood Controversey at Udwada Atash Behram
A few years ago, our entire family was at Udwada to offer prayers after my wedding. Just as we were about to give the “sukhad” to the “boiwala” dasturji, he refused to take it saying that its not...
Diaspora: A Talk by Khojeste Mistree
What the Diaspora can do for India and what India can do for the Diaspora A talk given by Khojeste P Mistree at the 10th World Zoroastrian Congress, Dubai on 31st December 2009 Good Morning Ladies...
Saving Miss Pestonjee
Pranab Babu's pioneering budgetary allocation for threatened communities wasn't met with the raising of a Parsi peg or gongs resounding from Mumbai's fire temples. A community that controls enough...
Indian Govt Budgets for Dwindling Parsi Population.
Not much is known about what can be done to check the dwindling number of Parsis. There has been much concern, even heartburn, but solutions have proved elusive. But the Centre has decided to step...
Centre will help Parsis to boost count
By Vineeta Pandey / DNA Concerned about the dwindling Parsi population in the country, the ministry of minority affairs is trying to come up with a concoction to reverse the trend. Minister Salman...
HC refuses to stay ban on 2 Parsi priests
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet got a shot in the arm on Thursday with the Bombay high court declining to stay its ban on two priests from performing religious Zoroastrian ceremonies at Doongerwadi and...
The Exodus
She calls it the U-Trip. Setting out from Karachi, 15-year-old Rosheen Birdie plans on visiting every major hub of Zoroastrians in the world, just so she can find one to marry. It’s not so easy to...
Can Zoroastrians save their faith?
By Deena Guzder / The Washington Post Many of us recently finished celebrating Christmas, Eid, and Hanukkah; however, few of us have heard of the religion that deeply influenced those traditions of...
“Parsis exude no sense of victimisation”
By Farrukh Dhondy / DNA India Sitting next to the grandson of a late great English writer, himself a writer, at a dinner party in Exmoor, I am asked if I am a practising Zoroastrian. I say 'not...
Stop taking painkillers if you want to breed vultures
BNHS says Bombay Parsi Punchayet’s plans to breed vultures at Towers of Silence will not work, as the birds will die from feeding on bodies of those who have consumed diclofenac. By Manoj R Nair /...
Religious Education and the Future of Young Mobeds in North America and Beyond
In early summer 2009, Jim Engineer, one of the founders of NextGenNow got in touch with me to see if I would like to write an article for the Fall 2009 FEZANA Journal. NextGenNow as an organisation...
Parsi body plans vulture breeding to help death rites
The Parsi community of the city -- who leave their dead out in the open to be consumed by vultures and were facing problems with disposing their dead with the dwindling number of vultures in the...
Back To The Vulture
The population of vultures in the subcontinent has been decimated over the last two decades, but it may yet rise from the ashes with support from human hands. At end-September, bird watchers from...
The Role of the High Priests of Parsis in India
This article is written by Kersee Kabraji of Pune, India and published with his permission. At the outset, I like to make it clear that I am neither a priest nor a scholar of our religion. With some...
Parsis push on with sops to boost birth rate
By Rathin Das | Surat At a time when most countries are engaged in controlling the population explosion, the miniscule Parsi community here is busy taking steps to increase its fast-dwindling...
Parsis moot Waqf-like body to protect land
By Nauzer Bharucha, TNN 7 September 2009, 12:47am IST Large-scale encroachments on properties belonging to Parsi trusts across the country led to suggestions during a two-day meet over the weekend...
Zoroastrians: Mapping Our Future: A Survey
Sam Balsara of Madison Advertising is putting together a presentation for the World Zoroastrian Congress in Dubai at the end of this year. As part of that he would like as many Zoroastrians to fill...
Religious Adultery and Parsis
Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram, a good old friend, editor of Frashogard.com and the Panthaki at the Jogeshwari Daremehr has written a hard hitting post on religious adultery. Marzban writes My...
Zoroastrians hope ‘Facebook for Parsees’ will revive religion
By Rhys Blakely in Mumbai for the Times UK. During their brief history, social networking websites have united millions of long-lost school friends and diverted millions of office workers from,...
Parsis seek apology from Arjun Rampal over ‘hurtful’ remark
Arjun Rampal should apologise to the Parsis. This is the demand from sections of the Parsi community who are scandalised with the actor for stating in a recent interview to a men's magazine that he...
Parsi Priests Challenge BPP Decision after Ban
Zoroastrian priest banned by the apex community trust challenges its decision; says he will not stop conducting rituals for mixed-marriage Parsis A Zoroastrian priest – who was banned from praying...
Own ‘Facebook’ to spur Parsis to marry their own
Worried about outside-the-community marriages, the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) has come upon a proactive solution. It plans to launch its own youth club and a social networking website to promote...
Burial grounds at city centres may become envy of land sharks
Located conveniently between Kolkata’s biggest cemetery and largest morgue, a bone-collecting firm is doing brisk business illegally, an online tabloid reported. And there are many others as well...
Breeding Vultures: The Other Side of the Story
GUWAHATI, India—The outcome of captive breeding of vultures has come under suspicion as the endangered bird has proven lazy in reproduction and more significantly, they are monogamous birds,...
Nestling Vultures: BPP and BNHS join hands
The Bombay Parsi Panchayat in collaboration with the BNHS plan to build a breeding centre for vultures at the Borivali National Park Sonu Bohra hunts for the details. Sonu Bohra While the Parsi...
Fraudster Aspi Satarawala
Last week, on June 11, 2009, Parsi Khabar linked to an article in the Times of India titled “NRI Parsi asked to Pay for Dad’s upkeep”. Within an hour we retracted that post. A few of you got the...
India’s Disappearing Vultures: Who will eat the Parsi dead?
India's vultures are disappearing from the country's skies, declining by as much as 99 percent from their original numbers, with the remainder dying at a rate of more than 40 percent annually,...
Assam vultures to the rescue of Parsis
As the Parsi community in India is facing serious concern for ensuring traditional disposal of bodies of their dead due to alarming decline in vulture population, members of this highly endangered...
Dokhmenshahi in UK: A contrarian view
Farrukh Dhondy, noted writer, talks about religious funeral practises in a recent article in the DNA India. It talks about a petition filed by a Hindu UK resident to be allowed in death to be...
BPP trustee supports needy Parsis
After years of fighting for a home under the Bombay Parsi Punchayet's (BPP) homes-for-the-needy scheme, needy Parsis found support from an unexpected quarter. A trustee of BPP, Noshir Dadrawala, on...