"With his writings and research on the history of Iran and the Zoroastrian religion, Mobed Koorosh Niknam is known as one of the leading contemporary figures in the field of Zoroastrian history and culture studies as well as being an outstanding and brave parliamentary representative of our Iranian community,” noted a communique from the London-headquartered World Zoroastrian Organisation. The 69-year-old liberal scholar had succumbed to cancer in France on May 9, 2024.
When speaking at the 11th World Zoroastrian Congress (WZC) in Perth in 2018, Niknam had noted that the Zoroastrian religion has "the power to spread peace, reconciliation, love and creativity at a time when violence and cruelty take place in so many places in the world. Yet this amazing and precious faith of ours is not given much importance and status.”
Mobed Koorosh Niknam: brave parliamentarian
Representing the Iranian Zoroastrians in the seventh Parliament of Iran for four years beginning 2004, during his tenure he had proposed that the parliament change the name of the fifth month in the Iranian calendar year (July 23-August 22) from the mispronounced Mordad which means death and nothingness to Amordad which signifies life and eternity in the Avestan language.
He was amenable to accepting members into the faith after ascertaining that they "would truthfully follow the Zarathushti path.” In an interview with Parsiana when he was in London to attend the 8th WZC Niknam had recalled that when Iranian ayatollahs asked him how many Zoroastrians are there, he had said two billion! Seeing their disbelief he had explained that anyone who acts with a good mind and treads the path of truth is a Zoroastrian!
His formative years were spent at the Diniari Elementary School and Markar High School in Yazd after which he received his diploma in natural science from the Iranshahr High School in Yazd and graduated from the Yazd University in experimental sciences. He had served the military for two years in Tehran and Ahvaz, and then again for 10 months during the Iran-Iraq war in 1981. When employed by the Ministry of Education he had taught in schools in Taft, Yazd, Isfahan and at Firouze Behram High School in Tehran.
Niknam completed his mobed training at the age of 26 and received his certificate from the Iranian Mobedan Association. Fifteen years later he enrolled at the Zoroastrian College in India to pursue Zoroastrian religious education and philosophy.
After a short sojourn in Tajikistan, his family relocated to France where he was known to conduct Hirbadi courses to train assistant priests in Europe. He would help candidates learn prayers from the Khordeh Avesta by heart, the Din-dabireh (Avestan) alphabet, and read and recite verses from the Gathas. Besides giving talks on the philosophy and spirituality of the Gathas, he would demonstrate how to perform the initiation ceremony (sedreh pooshi or navjote), gavaah-giri (wedding) and how to recite the Atash Nyaish. Every morning, he would interrogate the candidates on the lessons learnt the previous day.
Yet another course he conducted under the auspices of the Paris based World Zoroastrian Council (WZC) that works in conjunction with l’Association d’Etude Mondiale du Zoroastrisme was "Amoozgaar-e dini,” or mastery of religion. This was similar to a program he had conducted in 2002 through the Tehran Mobeds Council. Three years earlier he founded the Association of Zoroastrian Cultural Heritage. An author of eight books, among those he had penned were Golbanoo, The Tradition of Choice, Memories from the past, Gathas, Ancient Iranian Melodies, An Inquiry into the Life and Thought of Zoroaster… The respected priest is survived by his wife Parimarze, daughters Niloufer and Nauzanin, and sons Faredoon and Pedram.