Category: Issues

There’s a subtle caste system in place. Most Mumbai Parsis don’t want to discuss their tribal brethren. Priests refuse to live in the villages and no fire temples have been built. Article by Shubhangi Misra | The PRINT The World Zoroastrian Organisation has constructed 334 houses for rural Parsis so far, primarily in Gujarat. Many… Continue reading Mumbai’s Parsi sahibs have an inconvenient secret—tribal cousins in distant Gujarat villages

In India, an ancient religion known as Zoroastrianism is under threat. There are fewer than 60,000 believers and their numbers are projected to fall further. The UN says this is “alarming”, and warns of an “extinction in the not too distant future”. The BBC’s global religion reporter Sodaba Haidare takes a look at whether matchmaking… Continue reading Zoroastrians in India: ‘Dating my way out of extinction’

The Tower of Silence located in Parsi Gutta, the final resting place of the 1,200-strong Parsi community in Hyderabad, now has a solar concentrator to speed up the decomposition of dead bodies due to the dwindling number of vultures that used to devour the flesh. Article by JBS Umanadh | Telangana Today Hyderabad: The dwindling… Continue reading Last rites: Parsis turn to tech as vulture numbers decline

Wife of late Wajid Khan writes on her sufferings in an inter-faith marriage, says anti-conversion law should be nationalised Months after music composer Wajid Khan of the Sajid-Wajid fame passed away due to coronavirus related complications, his wife Kamalrukh Khan has taken to social media to share her first-hand account of life in an inter-faith… Continue reading Kamalrukh Khan: Anti-conversion law should be nationalised

The United States will be voting in a couple of days to elect its next President. Two Zoroastrian youth discuss voting, its importance and the consequences thereof in this very interesting instagram live event organized by FEZANA. Tanya Hoshi, FEZANA’s Chief Social Media Officer speaks to Ava Damri an active Zoroastrian youth in the Dallas… Continue reading Zoroastrians And USA Voting: Ava Damri in Conversation with Tanya Hoshi

Parizad Cama is breathing a lot easier nowadays. If all goes well, she can again call herself a Parsi. Even a few days back, Cama — born of a Parsi father and Punjabi mother — wasn’t sure if she could anymore. Article by Anand Soondas |The Telegraph Her optimism springs from a recent announcement by… Continue reading Parsis breathe easy on mixed-marriage ban

A complex issue of womanhood The entire 16th pargarad/chapter of the Vendidad is dedicated to the matter of menstruation, and later Pahlavi texts comment on this subject extensively. For those who believed this was an adopted Hindu practice from India please realize this is an integral component of the Mazdayasni Zarathosti religion. As a side note, please realize… Continue reading Menstruation and Zoroastrian Doctrine

Freny Manecksha on fighting the myopic vision of society that denounces single Parsi women for being ‘choosya and ‘selfish’ My progression into singlehood happened, perhaps, because I had started enjoying my independence a little too much. Some relationships had not culminated in marriage. I had consented to ‘seeing’ a few prospective matches more to assuage… Continue reading ‘At 60, I still encounter condescension and pity’