Living Zoroastrianism: Urban Parsis Speak about their Religion

This text describes the realities of modern Parsi religion through 30 interviews in which urban Parsis belonging to different social milieus and religious schools of thought discuss various aspects of their religious lives.

Zoroastrianism, the faith founded by the Iranian prophet Zarathustra, originated around 1000BCE and is widely regarded as the world’s first revealed religion. Although the number of its followers declined dramatically in the centuries after the 7th century Islamic conquest of Iran, Zoroastrians survive in Iran to the present day. The other major Zoroastrian community are the Parsis of India, descendants of Zoroastrians who fled Muslim dominion.