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"The time has come to stick our necks out. The world is in a very bad situation... Civilization is in need of good thoughts, words and deeds,” observed Awat Baperi (a.k.a. Awat Darya), representative of the Kurdish Zoroastrians in the Kurdistan government when speaking to Zoroastrians at the California Zoroastrian Center (CZC) on April 9, 2017. She is convinced "The solution is in our Gathas,” to nurture a good mind and eliminate the destructive one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concerned that Zoroastrians, who were the first to issue the Human Rights proclamation, are struggling in certain regions to practice their religion freely, she declared, "That is not right… Fortunately for us, the Zoroastrians of Southern Kurdistan live in a region which is semi independent. Our parliament and the government have approved article 5 which gives freedom to practice our religion. Now the Zoroastrians of Kurdistan are contributing to the country in many ways like taking care of the environment…volunteering to clean up city streets, helping the needy, (forming) youth organizations, finding jobs for young people, having weekly seminars to educate and make people aware of our religion, (bonding) with other religious groups and organizations, and supporting our brave Peshmerga fighting the forces of darkness, the ISIS, also known as Daesh.”
They have launched the Yasna organization in Kurdistan to bring Zoroastrians together. "Slowly the ones who were practising the religion are coming out and announcing their religion with no fear. The Zoroastrians are growing in numbers, groups and lately tribes are coming out and announcing openly (their Zoroastrian affiliation).” Recently, a tribe close to the Piramagrun Mountain in whose vicinity lie the ruins of Zoroastrian atash gahs, invited the Yasna organization and "announced openly their good religion,” according to a report prepared by Dr Faraydon Karim, a resident of USA, and associate of Yasna who served as the official translator during the visit of the team from March 31 to April 11, 2017.
The Kurdish delegation included Mariwan Naqshbandy, spokesman of the Awqaf ministry (Government Department of Religious Endowments), who related that years ago his hometown Halabja was bombed by poisonous gas when many people including his father lost their lives. Since then he considers Ali Jafarey [director of religious affairs and office manager of the Zarathushtrian Assembly (ZA)], as his father. After article 5 was passed by all the 111 members of the Kurdistan parliament, Zoroastrians were the first religious denomination to assign their representative in the Awqaf ministry, he noted.
Whilst maintaining good relations with members of other religions like the Christians, Jews, Muslims, Yazidis as also the consulates of countries like USA, France… last year the Kurdish Zoroastrians inaugurated an atash gah in the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Sulaimaniyah (see "Connect with the Kurds,” Zoroastrians Abroad, Parsiana, November 21, 2016) in the presence of the governor of Sulaimaniyah, Haval Abubakr. Despite financial limitations, "the growth continues,” summed up Darya.
The Kurdish delegation were the guests of ZA, Jafarey and Daryoush Irani but "six organizations worked together and did their best to make this visit successful,” noted a communique from scholar Daryoush Jahanian who has recently authored Gathas: The Message of Zarathushtra.
The efforts of ZA were supported by CZC, the Guiv Foundation, the North American Mobeds Council, the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America and the Zoroastrian Association of California (ZAC). "The Kurdish visit truly made history because such cooperation by six different Zoroastrian organizations was unprecedented,” reiterated Jahanian.
Among those who collaborated with the Kurdish delegation were scholar Fariborz Rahnamoon of Vancouver, Shahrooz Ash, Anahita Ariana (a.k.a. Jilla), and Mobed Behram Deboo who took the duo on a visit to the ZAC atash kadeh.