Part 1
The WZO organization has a mission statement
We aim to inform all about Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism, and improve the circumstances of the needy Zoroastrians around the world through charitable and social activities. 2.
The WZO web site 3. concentrates on the fund raising activities of the organization for its charitable works.
The ZTFE mission statement
The main objectives, in accordance with the Memorandum and Articles of Association:-
1. To advance the study and dissemination of information and knowledge of the Zoroastrian Faith.
2. To maintain a separate Burial Ground for Zoroastrians.
3. To provide a place of worship devoted to the promulgation and practice of the Zoroastrian Faith.
4. To hold religious, social and communal functions.
5. To give assistance to Zoroastrian students by way of loans and grants and to render such assistance to Zoroastrians as may be considered necessary.
6. To protect and enhance the interest of Zoroastrians in Europe. 4.
The ZTFE web site concentrates on the activities of a religious centre, the only one in Europe for Zoroastrians, and the need to raise money to run the centre. 5.
There are differences in attitudes between the members, as a group, of the two organizations which are touched upon in ‘Zoroastrians in Europe 1976-2003: continuity and change’, in Parsis in India and the Diaspora 6., where Zoroastrian women’s attitudes to six of the purity laws are discussed. For the Zoroastrian women membership of WZO, was more likely to be associated with a ‘yes’ response to the purity laws than non-membership. However, the ‘no response’ to membership of WZO gave the highest affirmation of the purity laws. Membership of ZTFE, had a different pattern of response with membership most likely to elicit a ‘yes’ response to the six purity laws, followed by ‘no response’ to membership of ZTFE and the least likely to affirm the purity laws were those women who said that they were not members of ZTFE: as is demonstrated in Table 1.
Membership of any Zoroastrian organization by the respondent was associated with the respondent being more likely to affirm the six purity laws than non-membership of Zoroastrian organizations. However, as noted above, these relationships are complex. 7. It will be interesting to see if the attitudes to the religious practices and beliefs of the two groups of Zoroastrians are different in the light of their mission statements and the ethos within the organization.
In this paper the data relating to the members, both women and men, of the organizations WZO and ZTFE will be examined. People can be members of both organizations and indeed some Zoroastrians are: membership of one does not preclude membership of the other. In 2003 a quantitative postal survey of Zoroastrians in Europe was conducted, under the auspices of both organizations WZO and ZTFE, 8. and the data to be discussed in this chapter comes out of that survey.
Two hundred and forty nine people affirmed that they were members of WZO, of whom 115 were men and 128 women, and 418 people affirmed that they were members of ZTFE, of whom 200 were men and 209 were women. The numbers do not add up to the totals because some people refused to give their gender.
There was little difference between the two organizations in terms of attending religious classes as a child thus the religious backgrounds are similar in this way for the two organizations. Sixty eight percent of ZTFE members prayed daily whereas sixty three percent of WZO did so.
There was a similar percentage difference in the response to the idea of the power of prayer with seventy nine percent of the members of ZTFE affirming the power of prayer and seventy five percent of members of WZO affirming the power of prayer.
There was little difference if any, between members of both organizations in terms of following religious traditions such as Sai Baba, Kookadaru, Aibara, Behramshah Shroff, and Pundol with few members of the organizations doing so. Differences begin to occur when the wearing of the religious garments are analyzed with WZO members affirming that sixty one percent of them wear the Sedreh/ Sudre daily whereas seventy two percent of ZTFE members do so. Similarly for the wearing of the Pushi/ Kusti fifty six percent of WZO do so, on a daily basis with sixty six percent of ZTFE members doing so.
However, there was little if any difference between the two groups in terms of their observance of Zoroastrian traditions such as Pateti/ No-Ruz celebrations, keeping an image of the prophet at home, not eating meat on Bahman Roj but there was a difference with the WZO group affirming at a lower rate observance of keeping an oil lamp burning in the home, observe Gambars and having a Jashan performed when they move house.
There were not many members of the groups who had children less than eighteen years of age, as can be seen from the table below, but those who did taught them to pray with the ZTFE group affirming at a higher rate than the WZO group. More members of the ZTFE group affirmed that their children less than 18 years of age had had their Naujote performed but this could be due to where the group members lived with forty four percent of WZO group living outside London compared with thirty three percent of the ZTFE group.
There was little difference between the WZO and the ZTFE group in terms of preferred burial practices with ZTFE group preferring a Tower of Silence, eleven percent, compared with eight percent for the WZO group.
The WZO group affirmed at higher percentages then the ZTFE group that a layman could perform initiation, wedding and burial rites.
The ZTFE group affirmed at higher percentage points that they believed in immortality of the soul, reincarnation and Heaven and Hell but there was no difference between the two groups in their attitudes to resurrection of the body where few members, nineteen percent, affirmed this belief.
The affirmation of prayers for the dead was highest for the ZTFE group regarding ‘prayers for the dead absolutely necessary’ and ‘prayers for the dead benefit the dead’. Whereas the WZO group affirmed at a higher level that prayers for the dead ‘benefit the living’ and that prayers for the dead ‘are meaningless’.