The history of Zoroastrians of Kerman and Yazd
A Speech by Dr. Bastani Parizi

From: mazda@att.net
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005 12:39 PM
To: creatingawareness@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Dr. Bastani Parizi

Dear Readers,

Unfortunately, official denial of the atorcities committed against Zoroastrians in their homeland in the wake of Arab invasion is a matter of fact and no one has officially acknowledged responsibility for the atomsphere of fear, intimidation, and fanaticism that caused untold pain and suffering to those who were steadfast to adhere to their ancestral religion. A naive observer is expected to believe, the populace volunteerily changed their religion - far from it.

However, learning from the experience of other minorities, if the world conscious has been made aware of the Jewish holocust or the Armenian holocust, it is primarily because many of the survivors and members of those communities took the trouble of producing an enormourus number of books, personal diaries, documentaries, plays, etc. to make sure the world conscious does not forget.

Where, we, the current generation of Zoroastrians, especially Zoroastrians of Iran have fallen short, and need to do a better job is to produce much more literature, books and documentaries to present our version of history and individual accounts. Waiting for someone else to do it, will not help us or the cause for which our ancestors stuck it out to the bitter end. So, if you like to do something about it, take the time to ask your parents, your grand parents - while they are still around - as to what eyewitness acounts they have or heard from their parents as to individual Zoroastrians who were kidnapped, murdured, tormented or their rightful livelihood/inheritance confiscated because a sibling had converted. Capture names, dates, places, circumstances and most importantly commit such information to writing or at least tape record them, and share it with others, so such information can be used for producing historical accounts.

Parvin - may be the 100 or so individuals who had gathered to listen to Dr. Bastani, and were disappointed at not receiving the acknowledgement they were looking for, will be invigorated to start documenting and committing to paper or to tape recording the individual accounts they are aware of. Such undertaking by them would benefit the cause of setting historical records right.

As for Dr. Bastani - Parvin, since I informed you of his presence in Toronto, and suggested inviting him to give a talk, in retrospective I wish I had taken the time to discuss a more appropriate topic for his speech. In the past, Dr. Bastani has not gone as far as acknowledging the suffering of Zoroastrians in their ancestral land. When previously pressed on this issue, he said something to the following effect - I do not recall his exacts words. 'As for the question of suffering dealt to the Zoroastrians, if you only knew, how much more suffering the aggressors have caused their own lot.' Despite the true-ism in this statement, two wrongs do not make a right.

The tale of Zoroastrians in their father land in the wake of the fall of Sasanians has two parts. First the gradual diminishing of the proud people due to ongoing persuctions, heavy Jazya taxation, genocides, and being denied basic rights continued through the 19th century. The second part is the turn around and the small diminished Zoroastrian community rising to the challenge and being at the forefront of fast forwarding their ancestral land into the 20th century. The turn around started in late 19th century, and in a short time frame the community rose to the postion of prominence. The small community produced unprecedented national leaders, a large pool of medical doctors, educators, professionals, business leaders, considerable number of schools/clinics/hospitals well out of proportion to its small size. All of this came about is a short span of time, when they got some breathing room. Highlighting the accomplishements of the second phase of our history is also important.

To his credit, Dr. Bastani, a profilic writer and a highly recognized mainstream Iranian historian of the 20th century has in a number of his books and articles made note of the contribution of the Zoroastrians and their notable characters. As an example, he credits the Zoroastrians in Kerman for that city being the most religiously-tolerant city in the country. He documented, a statement by a former mayor who had wished the rest of the population would learn from Zoroastrians in cleansiness and the importance of taking care of their environment and nature. In a number of his articles, he cites evidence and praises the Zoroastrians of Iran for their democratic outlooks and the community institutions where such high values are manifested. He is also one the few contemporary mainstream Iranian historians who has acknowledged the event in the late 16th century implicating GanjAli Khan, the influencial governor of Kerman, that could have resulted in the massacre of the en tire Zartoshty population of the Kerman province had it not been for the intervention of Safavid Shah Abbas II. But of course, he related that event in his classic book "Ganj Ali Khan" to bear witness to the character of the two politically influential Iranians of that era.

http://www.vohuman.org/Article/Ganj%20Ali%20Khan.htm

As progressive people, we need to focus on building a better future, rather than being held hostage by our past history. At the same time, we owe it to youselves to make sure the correct version of history is presented to the world conscious. Now, it is up to us to document that history. I hope we will rise to the occasion. So lets act before our valuable sources/eye witness bearers are gone.

With regards,

Mehr Soroushian,
San Diego, CA

Toronto, Cananda
August 20, 2005

-----Original Message-----
From: Contractor Parvin [mailto:parvincontractor@yyahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 12:00 PM
To: creatingawareness; Dr. Jafarey
Subject: [creatingawareness] Dr. Bastani Parizi

Dear Friends:

As you may know, we had the pleasure of having Dr. Bastani Parizi, the Iranian historian and writer, speaking at our Toronto Darbe-Mehr to an audience of about 100 mostly Zoroastrians in attendance. The topic of his speech was the history of Zoroastrians of Kerman and Yazd over the past few centuries. Dr. Bastani who was a previous acquaintance to some of the Zoroastrians present, corrected me when I introduced him as the retired chairman of the History Department of Tehran University. He stated that he still works there and has recently completed his 61st book.

In his talks, he started from the Saljoughian era to the present century. He touched upon the contribution of Zoroastrians in the recent century for the improvement of Zoroastrian conditions in Iran. Although Dr. Bastani mentioned the flight of Zoroastrians of larger Khorasan due to persecution, to India and Kerman and talked about the law of Jazia (forced religious dues), he failed to address or acknowledge the atrocities committed against Zoroastrians in Iran in the course of the past millennium. He mentioned that Jazia law started at the time of the Saljoughian rule. One member of the audience brought to his attention that Jazia had been collected from Zoroastrians since the Arab invasion of Iran, which Dr. Bastani acknowledged and responded that he had meant that in Kerman Jazia collection started with the Saljoughian era.

When asked to reflect upon the dwindling population of Zoroastrians of Iran who at the beginning of the Safavid Dynasty still numbered in the millions and by the end of their rule had decreased to less than hundred thousand due to massacres, forced conversion and mass movement, he answered that there is no real historical evidence or record of such claim. Yet, all we Zoroastrians need to do is talk to our grand parents or elder members of our families and hear their experiences or the experiences of their parents of such atrocities. One elder member of my family once said, if one day the world finds out what atrocities were committed against Zoroastrians in the course of the past 1400 years in Iran, the Jews, would be embarrassed to talk about the holocaust.

I wonder if Dr. Parizi's refusal to acknowledge all that befell the Zoroastrians in their ancestral land under the guise of religion, is due to him being a devout Muslim or the fact that he still lives and works in Iran. Can any historian for that matter be brave enough to put aside his/her religious bias and report history as it happened.

Best regards,

Parvin Behboodi
Toronto Canada