Have you converted to Zoroastrianism or do you know someone who has?
Why did you/he/she person convert?
How was the conversion received by others?
From what religion did you/he/she convert?
Are you/he/she still Zoroastrian?
Are you/he/she active religiously?
Were there any hindrances in the conversion process?
How were you/was he/she received by the Zoroastrian community?
Thanks!
WRS - “Ashem vohû vahishtem astî, ushtâ astî ushtâ ahmâi, hyat ashâi vahishtâi ashem.” From the Khorda Avesta on Avesta.org.
AFAIK Zoroastianism does not seek converts. They may not even accept them. They believe that you should be a faithful follower of the religion in which you were raised. The only exception that I know of: during the 3rd century AD, Zoroastrianism went through a militant phase in connection with the Sassanid Persian kings, who revived the Persian Empire and forcibly converted those they conquered.
As I recall, this is true. You cannot convert to Zoroastrianism, you have to be born into it. If you are born to a Zoroastrian parent, either mother or father, you are a member.
FWIW, the parents of the protagonist in Heinlein’s SF young-adult novel Tunnel in the Sky are members of a faith that spread from the Middle East in the future and which vaguely resembles Mazdism (“Zoroastrianism” is a solecism of the same sort as “Mohammedanism”), though it’s sort of a throwaway gimmick in the story and doesn’t play a major part in the plot.
Actaully, it’s even difficult for people who have only one Zoroastrian parent to be accepted. I used to know a guy who’s father was Zoroastrian (Parsi) but his mother was Mexican-Catholic. He was raised in the Zoroastrian faith but wasn’t accepted by many…
You can convert to Zoroastrianism, as long as it is not the Parsi faction. If it is a non-Parsi (probably Iranian) group, they’ll accept converts.
A group of Zoroastrians left Pars during the Islamic conquest of Iran and sailed to Gujarat. The rajah there let them settle but with a few conditions; one of these conditions was not to seek or permit conversion. So Parsis - that is, Zoroastrians who are descendants of the group that fled Pars - do not accept conversion. Other Zoroastrians do.
I had a professor whose parents are Zoroastrian. She could not be included in the religion because she was adopted. Perhaps her family was from one of the sects that doesn’t accept converts, but I talked to her about it and she never mentioned that there was another alternative.
From what research I had done before, traditional Zoroastrians, especially Parsis, are unaware of the possibility of conversion: this is partly because Parsis are very adamant in keeping this historical tenet of their group’s faith. However, the restriction on conversion came only after the refugees from Pars reached Gujarat, and so does not affect (and does not apply) to other Zoroastrians. For what it’s worth, the Parsis, I believe, make up the majority of the Zoroastrians, as they had been able to develop and thrive without hindrance in Gujarat (which continues to this day) whereas Irani Zoroastrians would have had to undergo persecution and limitations when Persia became Muslim.