The next meeting of the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India (FPZAI) will be held in Valsad, Gujarat on March 12 and 13, 2011. Parsiana was given a telephonic intimation by Bombay Parsi Punchayet senior executive (welfare) Cawas Panthaky but requested a written invitation as well, which was subsequently received. The number of press representatives from Parsiana has been restricted to two and the magazine has been told to make their own arrangements for hospitality.
In the past there has been no restriction on the number of representatives from the journal and accommodation was always provided by the host anjuman, which in this case is the Valsad Parsi Anjuman (VPA). But with the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) stranglehold on the all-India body and their known antipathy to Parsiana just issuing an invite in itself must have caused the WAPIZ leadership and their supporters considerable heartburn. At the last Federation meeting in Bombay on October 9 and 10, 2010, several delegates including WAPIZ founder trustee Areez Kham-batta had utilized the opportunity to attack Parsiana; this aside from the attacks on the magazine in the WAPIZ Page that is published every fortnight or so in The Free Press Journal.
The VPA has been in the limelight over its refusal (reportedly by a five to four trustees’ vote around 2005) to permit Parsi women married to non-Parsis admission into the local fire temple even if the women have had a civil marriage and continue to follow the Zoroastrian faith. VPA president Burjor Pardiwala claims the resolution barring the women was passed by the general body in 2005 and not by the trustees. VPA trustee Adi Contractor contends the general body only passed a "tharav (suggestion).” The Anjuman’s stand has been challenged by former Valsad resident and Contractor’s daughter, Goolrookh Gupta in the Ahmedabad High Court (see "Gupta’s gumption,” Parsiana, April 21, 2010). A three-member bench is to be formed to hear the case, informs Gupta.