Paulina Niechciał a respected Zoroastrian scholar and researcher attended the 12th World Zoroastrian Congress in New York in 2022, as also the 11th World Zoroastrian Congress in Perth in 2018.
Nearly two years after the 12WZC 2022 in NYC, she has published a paper titled
Eventisation of religion: the 12th World Zoroastrian Congress in New York City as an identity-oriented event
Author: Paulina Niechciał
Published by Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
ABSTRACT
Interested in the modern transformation of religious events, I discussed the 12th
World Zoroastrian Congress, held in New York City in 2022, as a social construct.
The Congress is the most important Zoroastrian community festival, held every
four or five years since 1960 and perceived as a platform to strengthen the
sense of belonging and interact with co-religionists from all over the world.
Based on a qualitative methodology, I analysed it as a transnational gathering that oriented attendees to a specific vision of the cultural program and
Zoroastrian collective identity – multifaceted, constantly negotiated and transformed,
referring to universalistic values, emphasising equality and inclusivity,
and challenging essentialised identities that were popular among previous
generations. I demonstrated how the event promoted the identity characteristics
of modern religious diasporic communities and was open to marginalised
or excluded groups such as women or people born outside traditional
Zoroastrian families.
You can read the entire paper online here