Zoroastrian pursuit

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The persecution of Zoroastrians is a systematic, social and / or state disadvantage and existential threat to people of the Zoroastrian faith in Iran. The religion of Iran, which prevailed until the Islamic expansion in the 7th century, has today - after centuries of oppression and emigration - around 30,000 believers who are resident in the province of Yazd , the city of Kerman and Tehran .

Beginnings

The Zoroastrian suppression began after the Arab conquest of the Sassanid Empire in what is now Iran in the 7th century and the transition of the state religion there from Zoroastrianism to Islam . The Arab conquest spanned several decades. Hormazdyar Mirza writes:

“The Arab and Muslim conquerors and their administrators cruelly persecuted the non-Muslim and also the non-Arab Muslim subjects with all the might of their frenzy and violence; they deprived the unhappy population of the essentials of life and extorted money from them for personal enrichment for selfish reasons. Apart from a few oasis spots, there was neither law nor order and justice for the subjugated peoples. One can well imagine the living conditions of the poor, helpless Zoroastrians who clung to their old beliefs with tenacious determination and stubbornly refused to accept Islam throughout these centuries. "

The confiscation of property from fire temples in what is now Bahrain and Iraq may have had economic as well as religious reasons. The broad mass of Iranians initially refused to convert to Islam. The conquerors' interest in conversion also seems to have quickly waned, as the non-Muslims had to pay the poll tax, which the Islamic governors wanted to collect for personal reasons. For example, a group of Zoroastrians from Khorasan is reported who had allegedly been converted to Islam by an itinerant preacher, but were then arrested and executed after a complaint had been received by the governor that the converts had become Muslims simply to save taxes .

Since the Koran does not contain any information about the legal status of the Zoroastrians as owners of scripts, it was initially unclear how they were to be classified for tax purposes. In the time of the Abbasids , the Zoroastrians were given an intermediate status between the 'heathen and idol worshipers' and the owners of scriptures. They had to pay the poll tax. The Muslims were not allowed to marry a Zoroastrian woman, whereas there were no obstacles to marriage against Jewish or Christian women. The Zoroastrians only received dhimma status like the Christians and Jews after Zarathustra was associated with Abraham, which made the Zoroastrian religion an Abrahamic religion that had some legitimacy in the eyes of the Muslims.

The systematic disadvantage and expulsion of the Zoroastrians began after the appearance of the Bujids around the year 936. With the Islamization of the cities, the Zoroastrians were forced into their own districts. The Zoroastrian fire temples were destroyed and mosques built in their place . Violent conflicts between Muslims and Zoroastrians have been reported in Qom , Kazerun , Shiraz and Bukhara , although there must have been real street battles between Zoroastrians and Muslims in Bukhara. For example, Zoroastrians threw stones at Muslims who were on their way to the mosque, which they in turn respond to with "counter attacks".

Laws were gradually introduced that restricted the social and political rights of the Zoroastrians and curtailed their opportunities to participate in society. Muslim women were only allowed to marry Muslims, while Muslim men could also marry daughters from Zoroastrian families. Children from these mixed marriages were automatically Muslim. Public religious events that could disturb Muslims were prohibited. The construction of non-Islamic sacred buildings was prohibited. Non-Muslims were prohibited from riding donkeys and horses, initially with a saddle and later completely. Non-Muslim traders paid higher import duties and taxes than their Muslim competitors. Testimony by Zoroastrians counted only half, in blood money regulations Zoroastrians received a fifth of the amount that Muslims received.

Emigration to India

A group of Zoroastrians emigrated in the 9./10. From Iran to India in the 19th century to avoid further persecution. There the migrants were called Parses (ie: Persians). The first settlements have taken place in the Gujarat area in Sanjan. Asylum was granted because they promised not to proselytize, but to enrich society with their knowledge and skills. According to the 2001 census, there were 69,601 Parsees in India, especially in Mumbai .

The migration to Sanjan was recorded in its own founding myth of the Zoroastrian community in India, the story of Sanjan . In order to be able to preserve their religion, Zoroastrian priests and believers gave up their houses and property and moved to Kuhestan (today: South Khorasan ). There they would have hid for a period of 100 years. After that, at the time of the Abbasids, they went by ship to India via Hormus , settled with the consent of the local ruler, Jādi Rāna, and consecrated a new fire shrine, the Atash Bahrām shrine. The foundation of this central fire sanctuary (Irānshah) marks the constitution of the Indian Zoroaster community.

Restriction and emancipation in Iran

The Zoroastrians remaining in Iran returned between 10 and 13 Century from Zurvanism back to Mazdaism , described in the Gathas , goes back directly to Zarathustra himself. Mazdaism remained the only surviving form of Zoroastrianism in Iran. Many Iranian festivals contain the Zoroastrian heritage and are still celebrated in Shiite Iran today , sometimes in syncretical form. The most important of these festivals is the Nouruz spring festival . "Unlike the Parsees, the memory of the discrimination on the part of the Muslim population is a central component of the cultural identity of the Iranian Zoroastrians."

Qajars (1796–1925)

Under the Qajar Shahs, the Zoroastrians were subjected to massive repression. One of the most effective means of social repression has been to collect poll tax. The tax was usually collected arbitrarily and at irregular intervals. Since several intermediate members wanted to earn money with the tax, the final amount was usually higher than the fixed amount. A petition to Naser ad-Din Shah in 1882 led to tax equality and the formal abolition of poll tax. In 1898, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah issued a decree that officially lifted all discrimination. Napier Malcolm, however, describes in his book on Iran that the decree is completely ineffective. So the Zoroastrians had to pay higher fees in the bazaar. Pressure was exerted on Muslims who shopped from Zoroastrians to avoid the business of the 'unclean' in the future. No flour was sold to Zoroastrians. Money that Zoroastrians lent Muslims was not paid back in quite a few cases.

The contacts between the Zoroastrians who emigrated to India and the hometown communities who remained in Iran were never broken. As the economic hardship of the Iranian Zoroastrians increased steadily, the Indian Parsees, who had become prosperous, provided financial aid to their home communities. In the middle of the 19th century the idea arose to completely relocate the Zoroastrians who remained in Iran to Bombay instead of leaving them under "a tyrannical regime." Manekij reported in 1865 that the diet of the Zoroastrians was very limited and that rice, meat and vegetables were rarely on the table.

Constitutional Revolution (1906-1911)

The Constitutional Revolution in Iran was supported by Zoroastrians through monetary donations and arms smuggling. The dispute over the form of the constitution passed on December 30, 1906 also touched on the question of political equality for religious minorities. The active and passive right to vote was initially only granted to Muslims. Keikhosrow Shahrokh reports in his memoirs that the majority of the Muslim clergy took the view that only Muslims should be represented in parliament and that Muslim clergymen represented those of other faiths. Jamschid Bahman Jamschidian (also Arbab Jamschid ), the first Zoroastrian deputy in the newly elected Iranian parliament, is said to have bribed Seyyed Abdullah Behbahani , one of the spokesman for the constitutionalists from the clergy, for publicly campaigning for the rights of the Zoroastrians. Jamshidian was able to achieve that the Zoroastrians were awarded a representative who they could choose in their own election. The Jews and Christians, who initially did not pursue their right to be represented in parliament, did not receive a representative until the second legislative period.

The introduction of a constitution and a parliament should not change anything in the suppression of the Zoroastrians. Several forms of discrimination are listed in a report from the British Vice Consul in Yazd to the British Ambassador to Iran:

  • False testimony by Muslims against Zoroastrians in favor of fellow believers is considered honorable among Muslims.
  • Judgments are generally issued against Zoroastrians if Muslims are the defendants.
  • While a Muslim goes unpunished if he beats a Zoroastrian, the Zoroastrian can expect an uprising against the entire religious community in the opposite case.
  • If Zoroastrians resist discrimination, they must expect murder.
  • The murder of a Zoroastrian by a Muslim is atoned for with the payment of blood money; no further penalty is provided. If a Zoroastrian murders a Muslim, he is sentenced to death.

Although in the Iranian constitution according to Article 8 the same rights apply to all residents of the Iranian Empire and in Article 9 all persons are granted the protection of life, property and their honor, the legal practice was different. Keikhosrow Shahrokh, who succeeded Jamschid Bahman Jamschidian as Zoroastrian MP and represented the interests of the Zoroastrians in parliament for several legislative periods, was vehemently in favor of an active gender equality policy. From 1921 he worked closely with Reza Khan, who later became Reza Shah Pahlavi . Reza Khan had campaigned for the Zoroastrians in Yazd during his time as Minister of War. Reza Khan, at the request of Keikhosrow Shahrokh, ordered that Zoroastrians be allowed to ride donkeys and horses, which the Zoroastrians were not allowed by the Muslim clergy. The army commander of Yazd was instructed to take action against violations as all Iranians had the same rights.

Pahlavis (1926–1979)

A more tolerant attitude prevailed in Iran under the Pahlavis government . One of the first known Zoroastrians who actively fought against discrimination at the political level was Keikhosrow Shahrokh . He initially circumvented the dress code for Zoroastrians by introducing a school uniform in the Zoroastrian school in Kerman. The discriminatory dress code for adults was abolished in 1926 under Reza Shah .

In 1927 a law was passed giving secular courts the power to judge crimes, and in 1931 the articles of the Code of Criminal Procedure that referred to the jurisdiction of Islamic jurists were repealed. From this point on, the Islamic legal scholars had been completely ousted in the judiciary by state courts, which led to an end to the legal discrimination of the Zoroastrians. In 1933 a law was passed that gave the Zoroastrians the option of developing their own family and inheritance law. From this point on it was also forbidden to call the Zoroastrians 'unclean' (najes) and to forbid them to touch fruit or vegetables or water when shopping.

The Iranian Zoroastrians were among the clear winners of the Pahlavi Shahs. The pressure of discrimination eased noticeably. Zoroastrians rose to high positions in state institutes and the military. Farhad Mehr rose to represent Iran at OPEC , chairman of the board of the state insurance company and chancellor of the University of Shiraz. According to estimates from 1978, the Zoroastrians were the wealthiest religious group in Iran.

Islamic Republic of Iran (1979 - today)

Since the Islamic Revolution by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, social and professional discrimination against the Zoroastrians has increased. According to the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Zoroastrians are partially entitled to social recognition, political integration and the granting of religious rights. They have their own jurisdiction in family, marriage, divorce and adoption law. They are allowed to practice their religion as long as they do not proselytize and violate the Islamic social order. There is no religious persecution or forcible conversion today. However, the discriminatory law of inheritance is supposed to achieve conversion to Islam. The Zoroastrian faith may only be lived in private, religious holidays may only be celebrated after prior registration and review of the speeches.

The political, social, and cultural changes that followed the Islamic Revolution primarily affected Zoroastrian academics and the military, who were forced out of their positions. Higher military ranks are closed to the Zoroastrians, as are jobs in schools, authorities or other public sector institutions. In 1998, Farhang Mehr, who was Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor of the University of Shiraz during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , called on then President Mohammad Chātami to end the policy of discrimination, but this did not lead to any changes.

The newly formulated criminal law, which was based on Sharia law after the Islamic Revolution, also applies to non-Muslims, although in some respects they have a special position. Sexual intercourse between a Muslim woman and someone of a different faith is, under criminal law, treated as incest and rape. The return to traditional succession rules is also preferred by Muslims. If a member of a Zoroastrian family converts to Islam, he inherits the entire estate; his siblings inherit nothing as unbelievers.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Zoroastrians in Iran. Society for Threatened Peoples, accessed September 14, 2010.
  2. ↑ Zoroastrians in Iran: On the Retreat. Qantara.de, accessed on September 15, 2010.
  3. ↑ Hormazdyar Mirza: Outlines of Parsi History. Bombay 1987, pp. 216f.
  4. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 1, Stuttgart 2002, pp. 267f.
  5. ↑ Jamsheed Chosky: conflict and cooperation. New York 1997, p. 268.
  6. ↑ JR Russel: Our father Abraham and the Magi. In: JCOI. 54, 1987, pp. 56-73.
  7. ↑ Johann Figel: Manual religious studies. 2003, p. 385.
  8. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 1, Stuttgart 2002, p. 275.
  9. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 1, Stuttgart 2002, p. 279.
  10. ↑ Iranica.com Parsi Communities in early History
  11. ↑ Dorothee Wenner: The less, the funnier. In: The time. No. 22/2002.
  12. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 1, Stuttgart 2002, p. 380.
  13. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 2, Kohlhammer, 2002, p. 153.
  14. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 2, Kohlhammer, 2002, p. 163.
  15. ^ H. Busse: Kerman in the 19th century. In: Islam. 50, 1973, p. 307.
  16. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 2, Kohlhammer, 2002, pp. 154f.
  17. ↑ Manekji Limji Hataria: Risale ejhare siate Iran. Bombay 1865, pp. 13f.
  18. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 2, Kohlhammer, 2002, p. 170.
  19. ↑ The Memoirs of Keichosrow Sharokh. no year, p. 57.
  20. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 2, Kohlhammer, 2002, p. 173.
  21. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 2, Kohlhammer, 2002, pp. 174f.
  22. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 2, Kohlhammer, 2002, pp. 181f.
  23. ↑ Janet Kerstenberg Amighi: The Zoroastrians of Iran. New York 1990, p. 233.
  24. ↑ Petra Uphoff: The Religious Minorities of Iran ISHR, May 2009.
  25. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 2, Kohlhammer, 2002, p. 194.
  26. ↑ Michael Stausberg: The religion of Zarathushtra. Volume 2, Kohlhammer, 2002, p. 193.