Persecution of Zoroastrians

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Persecution of Zoroastrians refers to the religious persecution inflicted upon Zoroastrians. Persecution is pivotal to Zoroastrians' sense of identity, and as the Jewish communities cannot be understood without an appreciation of the reality of antisemitism, so too the Zoroastrian experience of exclusion must be taken into account.^[1]

In Iran, where Zoroastrianism has its roots, discrimination and harassment began immediately following the Islamic Conquests in Iran of the seventh century in the form of sparse violence and forced conversions.^[2] The persecution increased in the 700s, during the reign of the late Umayyad Caliphs, whose dynastic predecessors had conquered most of the last Zoroastrian state by 652.^[1][3][4] The persecution of Zoroastrians increased significantly under the Abbasids (752 - 804), "under whose rule the temples and sacred-fire shrines were destroyed."^[5] Also during Abbasid rule, the status of Zoroastrians in Persian lands was reduced from zimmi (or dhimmi, people who were protected by the state and generally considered "People of the Book") to kafirs (nonbelievers). ^[6]

During the Islamic Conquest of Iran, and in the following centuries, Zoroastrianism continued to remain widespread, especially in rural areas. Persecution and forced conversion were occasional, albeit fairly uncommon, occurrences in this period of coexistence and interaction.^[7] Any political, military, or economic resistance by Zoroastrians was unfeasible or violently suppressed by the Muslim government. Over time, persecution of Zoroastrians became more common and widespread, and the number of believers decreased significantly. There was also an increased number of laws regulating Zoroastrian behavior, limiting their ability to participate in society, and restricting the ways in which they could interact with Muslims. These factors continued to contribute to increasing rates of conversion from Zoroastrianism to Islam.^[8]

The persecution of Zoroastrians after the Muslim conquest led to a migration of Zoroastrians to the Western Coast of India where they settled, forming the Parsi community. Several additional migrations increased the size of the Parsi community, and it spread over time, becoming influential and important in Western India. This was mainly due to the fact that the Zoroastrians partially assimilated into Indian culture, but maintained their own distinct religious heritage and beliefs. Furthermore, by agreeing to follow certain conditions on their arrival, the Parsis were allowed to exist peacefully in Western India, and were not subject to the kind of persecution and discrimination which they had fled from. This community still exists in Western India, and it currently contains the largest concentration of Zoroastrians in the world.^[9]

It is only in recent times that Parsis have become aware of the extent of the oppression that their co-religionists in Iran had to endure.^{[citation needed]}

References