http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/210920163
Zoroastrians in the Kurdistan Region hope that their first official temple in the region, opened on Wednesday, will provide the right environment to “reintroduce” Kurds to their ancestral religion.
Awat Hussamaddin Tayib, the chief of the followers of the Zoroastrians in the Kurdistan Region—she calls it Bashur, Southern Kurdistan, in Kurdish—told Rudaw English that dozens of Kurdish people are returning to Zoroastrianism, but that some keep it secret out of fear.
Zoroastrianism was a dominant religion in the region that was largely lost following two major historical military campaigns, Tayib explained, one during the time of Alexander the Great and the other during the Islamic campaign which brought much of present-day Middle East under Islamic rule in the seventh century.
Today, some followers of Zoroastrianism are afraid to publicly practice their religion.
The war against the Islamic State, Tayib said, is on the Kurdistan border. She fears that some Islamists might not be happy about the rise of her religion.
The Zoroastrians opened their first temple in the Kurdish city of Suleimani on Wednesday. They lit a fire and played the frame drum or daf to celebrate the occasion, two elements of their rituals.
Tayib takes pride in her religion because she can, like her male counterpart, run the affairs of her fellow Zoroastrians “without any gender discrimination.” In our religion, she explained, we only talk about human beings, and humans by nature do not recognize gender roles.
(Ahead of it's time ...)
Zoroastrians in the Kurdistan Region hope that their first official temple in the region, opened on Wednesday, will provide the right environment to “reintroduce” Kurds to their ancestral religion.
Awat Hussamaddin Tayib, the chief of the followers of the Zoroastrians in the Kurdistan Region—she calls it Bashur, Southern Kurdistan, in Kurdish—told Rudaw English that dozens of Kurdish people are returning to Zoroastrianism, but that some keep it secret out of fear.
Zoroastrianism was a dominant religion in the region that was largely lost following two major historical military campaigns, Tayib explained, one during the time of Alexander the Great and the other during the Islamic campaign which brought much of present-day Middle East under Islamic rule in the seventh century.
Today, some followers of Zoroastrianism are afraid to publicly practice their religion.
The war against the Islamic State, Tayib said, is on the Kurdistan border. She fears that some Islamists might not be happy about the rise of her religion.
The Zoroastrians opened their first temple in the Kurdish city of Suleimani on Wednesday. They lit a fire and played the frame drum or daf to celebrate the occasion, two elements of their rituals.
Tayib takes pride in her religion because she can, like her male counterpart, run the affairs of her fellow Zoroastrians “without any gender discrimination.” In our religion, she explained, we only talk about human beings, and humans by nature do not recognize gender roles.
(Ahead of it's time ...)
