A fire was lit and daf played to mark the opening of the first official fire temple in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, according to a report posted by the Kurdistan news agency rudaw.net on September 22, 2016. The inauguration of this temple is expected to "provide the right environment to ‘reintroduce’ Kurds to their ancestral religion,” noted rudaw. An earlier interview with Luqman Haji by Al-Monitor in February 2016 indicated that the Zoroastrian Cultural and Heritage Center with a small temple had already been established although it had not been recognized as a house of worship by the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs (MERA) in Iraqi Kurdistan.
At the launch of the first official fire temple
in Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan Photos: ekurd.net
Zoroastrianism was a dominant religion in the region but lost its supremacy during the campaign of Alexander in the fourth century BC and subsequently in the seventh century AC when much of present day Middle East was brought under Islamic rule, stated Awat Hussamaddin Tayib who represents the Zoroastrians at MERA. She is happy that Kurds are returning to Zoroastrianism although some are afraid to publicly practise the religion founded by Zardusht who many believe was a Kurd. In fact the Kurdish dialect of Hawrami, still widely spoken in the Kurdish areas in Iran and Iraq, has many similarities to the ancient Avestan language. Over the years Hawrami has not been influenced by external factors since the natives who live on a mountainous terrain had limited contact with the outside world.
Another report of the event carried on Basnews on September 22 quoted Jalil Abbasi as saying that several government officials and political representatives attended the opening ceremony as an indication of peaceful coexistence among Kurds in the Middle East. The temple is said to have been opened after receiving official permission from the Kurdistan Regional Government. Besides the initiation ceremony, semblant of the kusti tying ritual, even wedding ceremonies have been performed in the temple. As part of the wedding ceremony the couple expresses their intent to get married and observe the tenets of good thoughts, words and deeds. They also make a vow to observe their wedding anniversary each year by taking a break from their routine and jointly volunteering to serve others.
In response to a plea by California based octogenarian Rusi Sorabji, "How do we help them?” Dr Dolly Dastoor, editor of FEZANA (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America) Journal pointed out that "Dr Daryush Jahanian of Kansas and the Guiv Foundation has been in contact with the Kurdish group since over a year and helping them by sending Gatha books and financial help. We need to join forces… The spring issue of the FEZANA Journal was devoted to the Kurdish reemergence…”
Firoz Pestonji, one of the organizers of the World Zoroastrian Congress in Australia recommended that they be invited to the global meet in 2018: "Somehow a global dialog has to be started and openly discussed… But sitting around for a messiah to arrive and guide us may not be an answer for us all… The good lord helps those who help themselves.”
"But the Congress is two years away,” responded Sorabji, adding, "We must enter into a dialog now, like what the European Zarathushtis are doing since last year… Let us try and guide them on the right path. Show them how we practise the religion and explain the deviations that have crept in…during the 1,300 years the Parsis were allowed freedom of religion in their adopted country. Invite them to Bombay, give them a tour of the fire temples (if some will allow them in), teach them kusti making so they may like to do away with the scarf that they use as a substitute…We should invite them to some Parsi navjotes and wedding ceremonies… Donations of suitable sized afargan, used or new ones… from any of the many closed agiaries…may help…the new Kurd Zarathushtis fuse or unify with the original teachings of Zoroaster…A good Zarathushti would not like items such as these dangling in a shop in Chor Bazar in (Bombay) or being consigned to the smelter’s pot… I wish I was younger and could help…Let there be another attempt to link the Zarathushtis of the world together…”