Zoroastrians Fear The Disappearance of Their Religion Through Assimilation

January 1, 2001

Source: The New York Times

On January 1, 2001, The New York Times reported that 1100 years ago, many Zoroastrians fled from Iran to India. Now a "second diaspora" is progressing, as Zoroastrians migrate around the globe. Because there are only 200,000 Zoroastrians left worldwide and because interfaith marriages are common, many worry that the scattered members of this faith will assimilate into the surrounding culture: "we're not living in proximity, in the neighborhoods we had in India," said one. The Zoroastrian religion dates back about three thousand years, to the prophet Zarathustra, of Persia, who "taught an ethical code...The faith proclaims belief in a single deity, Ahura Mazda, whose name means Wise Lord. A central tenet is that human beings have free will, to think for themselves and choose between good and evil. The ultimate goal is to do good, eliminate evil and move the world toward perfection." Although Zoroastrianism "long held a dominant position in ancient Iran," centuries of oppression have resulted in significantly dwindling numbers. These shrinkages have led to a debate about the religion's ancient prohibition of the acceptance of converts into Zoroastrianism. In the words of one proponent, "the right thing to do is to give people a choice, so if they want to live their lives in accordance with a certain teaching, they can. That was the essence of Zarathustra's teaching." On the other side of the debate, however, are those who believe that "in order to survive in a vast multitude of different races and cultures, we had to formulate certain rules. And one of the rules is, we have to be an exclusive community." Modern Zoroastrians have the Internet and air travel to keep in touch. Plus, the numbers of Zoroastrian associations have been growing around the world. Some observers, therefore, deem Zoroastrian fears of disappearance through assimilation to be unfounded.