Zartoshi

The Zartoshtis (Behdinan, 'people of the good religion') are Iran's indigenous Zoroastrians, followers of the religion of Zarathustra that was the state faith of the Achaemenid, Parthian and Sasanian empires. After the Arab conquest of the 7th century and centuries of poll tax, discrimination and conversion, the community shrank and withdrew to the desert cities of Yazd and Kerman, where it kept its own language, Zoroastrian Dari or Behdini, a Central Plateau Iranian language with a Yazdi dialect of some thirty neighbourhood varieties and a Kermani dialect; outsiders called it Gabri, from gabr, 'infidel', a name the community resents. Some Zoroastrians fled to Gujarat and became India's Parsis, and later emigrants to Bombay are known as Iranis. With help from the Parsi envoy Manekji Limji Hataria the poll tax was lifted in 1882, and Zoroastrian merchant families moved to Tehran, which now holds the largest community. The 2016 census counted 23,109 Zoroastrians, down from 60,000-80,000 before 1979, and perhaps 8,000-15,000 still speak Zoroastrian Dari.

Zoroastrian life follows its own calendar: Nowruz is a sacred festival as well as the national new year; Sadeh, the midwinter bonfire fifty days before Nowruz, now draws Muslim crowds in Yazd, Kerman and Tehran; Mehregan and Tirgan mark autumn and summer; and six seasonal Gahambar feasts see households cook for the whole community. Each June pilgrims climb to the mountain shrine of Pir-e Sabz (Chak Chak) near Ardakan. Children are initiated at the sedreh-pushi ceremony with the white sedreh shirt and kushti cord, which adults untie and retie in prayer. Old Zoroastrian houses in Yazd have sunken courtyards and fire niches, and women once wore distinctive bright dress. Marriage within the faith is strongly preferred. The community is highly educated, urban and ageing, and runs its schools, fire temples, cemeteries and charities through elected anjomans.

Worship centres on Ahura Mazda and the ethic of good thoughts, good words and good deeds, with fire venerated as the symbol of divine light; the Yazd Atash Behram is the only fire of the highest grade in Iran. Hereditary mobeds, now few, lead Avestan prayers and rites. Exposure of the dead on Towers of Silence ended in the 1970s and the dead are buried in concrete-lined graves. Traditionalists keep purity laws and ritual, while reformists emphasise the Gathas and ethical monotheism. Since the 2000s many secular Muslim-born Iranians have embraced a Zoroastrian identity as a statement of Iranian nationalism, but Iranian law forbids conversion from Islam and the traditional community does not accept converts, so this remains cultural rather than formal membership.

There is no Scripture in Zoroastrian Dari, but every Zoroastrian speaks Persian and can use the full Persian Bible, the JESUS film, audio recordings and Persian Christian satellite and online media. The closed, non-proselytising tradition, the memory of forced Islamisation, a strong religious-national identity and the social cost of leaving the community are the main barriers. No organised Christian outreach to Zoroastrians is documented.