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The North American Mobeds Council (NAMC) at its annual general meeting in Washington unanimously decided to confer the Distinguished Scholar Awards to Ervads (Dr) Jehan Bagli and Soli Dastur, notes a communication from former NAMC president Ervad Kobad Zarolia. Erstwhile chair of the FEZANA (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America) Research and Preservation Committee, Bagli is author of several books on Zoroastrian rituals. Dastur is known for conducting religion classes for adults and children with his weekly Zoroastrian Scripture extracts, e-distributed worldwide to over 900 Zoroastrians for several years. Both have participated at interfaith meets.

 

 

 

 

 

The award was presented to Bagli by Zarolia at the Navroz function of the Zoroastrian Society of Ontario on August 18. Whilst gratefully accepting the award, Bagli remarked, "I have some serious reservations of me being recognized at the scholastic level. I feel a dedicated student of Zarathushtrian faith would be a better fit. Doing research on a subject is what I have done for 37 years in my professional career so I simply chose to continue doing the same on Zoroastrianism after I retired. I find it highly satisfying to continue to learn about all aspects of our noble faith and disseminating the same to the community at large, is an added bonus.”
Dastur and his wife Jo Ann were presented the award by NAMC president Arda-e Viraf Minocherhomji at the Zoroastrian Association of Florida (ZAF) Navroz function on August 18. They were felicitated at the Orlando CFG Group Navroz function on August 19 and at the Zoroastrian Association of Tambay (ZATambay) function on August 26 by Rustom Kevala, past president of FEZANA and Hoshedar Tamboli. As acknowledged Soli, "Jo Ann and I are so fortunate and grateful for receiving this prestigious award from NAMC and want to thank Arda for coming all the way from San Diego to present it to us, and to thank our friends in ZAF, Orlando CFG and ZATambay.”