Recently a 70-year-old friend in Hyderabad undertook the behdin pasban course in Bombay which will qualify him to perform some religious ceremonies. My friend was very happy with the course as it would help counter the great shortage of qualified Zoroastrian priests. Since the name of the course is behdin pasban, is this course open to only behdins, debarring athornans? If not, it should be called Zarathushti pasban.
Yet another unreasonable practice among Parsis is that only boys from athornan families can undergo navar and maratab training which will qualify them to practice as priests. Boys from behdin families are denied this opportunity even if they are interested. In a minuscule community like the Zoroastrians in India, where there is no genetic or professional difference between the two so-called sects, why are we differentiating between behdin and athornan families? Permitting the option of navar and maratab training to all Zoroastrian boys may not solve the problem of the shortage of priests, but it will at least increase the number of students who join madressas for this training and opt for priesthood if they so wish. All boys who go through this training do not choose the priesthood as their profession.
Reforms are needed, but who is authorized to initiate such reforms? It’s time this and many other gender discriminatory reforms are made in the fast disappearing Parsi community.
MAHTAB A. BAMJI
Hyderabad
msbamji@gmail.com