It is unclear whether Zoroastrianism is in fact the most ancient of monotheistic religions, as some of its worshippers, who date the faith to the second millennium B.C.E., claim.  However, parallels between Zoroastrianism and some aspects of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, may reflect its influence on these religions.  Zoroastrianism is for example, dualistic, with a good spirit of light and an evil spirit of darkness.  It also features a messiah figure, Sayoshant, who is said to be of virgin birth.[5]

Most Iranian Zoroastrians are ethnic Persian,[6] reflecting the religion’s deep roots in the region.  However, believers are also referred to as Gabrs by some in Iran.[7]

Demography

Demographic data on Zoroastrians tends to vary considerably.  Estimates as to the current number of Zoroastrians in Iran commonly range from 30,000 to 35,000,[8] – Iran’s last official census put the figure at 30,000 – although some believers claim that there are nearly 60,000.[9]  India also has a large, but dwindling community.  There were reportedly 93,000 adherents in India in 1900,[10] but today this number has dropped to between 60,000[11] and 76,000.[12]  There are also substantial Zoroastrian communities in the U.S. (10,800 to 17,000), Great Britain (5,000 to 10,000),[13] Canada (6,000-7,000), Pakistan (2,100-2,800), Australia (2,500), and the United Arab Emirates (1,500).[14]  In all, the global Zoroastrian Diaspora is said to contain anywhere from 100,000[15] to 300,000 members.[16]

Geographic Distribution

From its origins in the ancient Persian city of Rhages[17] – the reported birthplace of Zarathustra and today a southern suburb of Tehran known as Ray – Zoroastrianism spread throughout the Persian Empire and beyond, sometimes intermingling with indigenous faiths along the way.  There were communities to the west in Turkey and others as far as east as China.[18]  By the 10th century C.E. large numbers of Iranian Zoroastrians reached Gujarat, India and began moving down the western coast of the country.[19]  Today, India’s Zoroastrians, known as Parsis, are concentrated in the Mumbai area, also home to the global leaders of the faith.[20] 

Much of the global Zoroastrian Diaspora did not develop until the late 1800s, when large numbers of Iranian and Indian adherents began moving elsewhere.[21]  However, some migration from the faith’s traditional homeland apparently occurred some years earlier, as Britain’s Zoroastrian community is said to date to 1724.[22]

In Iran today, many Zoroastrians live in Tehran or in the southeastern provinces of Kerman and Yazd[23] (the city of Yazd is known as the spiritual capital of the faith in Iran).[24] 

Historic Hardship

Alexander the Great’s invasion of Persia in 333 B.C.E. resulted in some of the earliest documented accounts of Zoroastrian persecution.  According to sources, Alexander murdered priests and adherents and destroyed holy sites and sacred texts as part of a brutal campaign that brought on the faith’s decline in the region.[25]

Later, as Islam took hold after the Arab conquests of the 630s C.E., Iranian Zoroastrians were again mistreated.  There was apparently relative tolerance of the faith in the early years of Islamic dominance, with Zoroastrians in much of modern-day Iran – with the exception of the southeast, where Islam is said to have spread rapidly – holding strong to their religion for some two-hundred years after the conquests.[26]  However, tensions were still apparent during this period, with some Zoroastrians actively resisting the imposition of Islam and others conceding to demands to pay a fee to practice their faith.[27]  This repression would rise to the level of persecution between the 7th and 9th centuries, when large numbers of Zoroastrians fled to India to escape the wrath of Muslims who labeled them kafirs or unbelievers.[28]

In modern times, Zoroastrians have remained relatively marginalized.  However, Tehran’s stance towards the group improved somewhat in the 1960s under Shah Reza Khan Pahlavi, who appealed to elite Zoroastrians for support, gave adherents access to all military positions and sought to bring the faith’s contributions to Iranian heritage on equal footing with those of Islam.  The Parsi author I.J.S. Taraporewala calls this period “the renaissance” of Zoroastrianism in Iran.[29]

Ongoing Hardship

Although Zoroastrianism is recognized in Iran’s Constitution along with Christianity and Judaism as an officially sanctioned monotheistic religion – a designation which ostensibly grants believers the right to worship freely[30] and operate private schools that teach their faiths[31]- Zoroastrians and other non-Muslims are in reality second-class citizens.  Religious minorities have fewer rights than Muslims under national inheritance law and are subject to harassment and discrimination in education and employment.[32]  Tehran granted modest concessions in 2003 in the form a new law that accorded equal compensation to both monotheistic minority and Muslim victims of crimes of murder or bodily harm.[33]  However, Iranian religious minorities are still officially worth less than their Muslim counterparts under national law.[34] 

Today, as the hard-line regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cracks down on ‘anti-Islamic’ practices, religious minorities are under even greater threat.  In 2003, for example, the United States government-commissioned International Religious Freedom Report did not document any specific instances of state mistreatment of Zoroastrians in Iran, but by 2006, with Ahmadinejad in power, the report noted that Iran had launched defamatory media campaigns against Zoroastrians and other religious minorities. The 2006 report also said that non-Shias that year were unfairly imprisoned, harassed and intimidated.  With discrimination on the rise, non-Shias have emigrated in greater numbers in recent years.[35]

Still, there is ample evidence that many Iranians stand opposed to their government’s cruel policies.  Of note is the fact that many are still openly celebrating the Zoroastrian-rooted, end-of-year fire worshipping rituals, despite increasing admonitions against the practice from Islamic officials.  In doing so, they are both offering dissent and clinging to a cherished vestige of pre-Islamic Iranian culture.[36]

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