Part 2
Regarding the six purity laws the ZTFE group always affirmed at a higher level that women should observe the six purity laws than the WZO group with sometimes as much as eleven percentage points difference between the two groups. The latter finding is important because when the attitudes of the two groups to the boundaries of the Zoroastrian religious community are examined a similar pattern occurs.
The WZO group always affirms at a higher percentage level, by sometimes as much as fourteen percentage points, than the ZTFE group regarding who can be accepted as a Zoroastrian or be permitted to take part Zoroastrian rituals or visit Zoroastrian religious buildings. Eighty eight percent of the WZO group ‘accept’ intermarriage whereas seventy seven percent of the ZTFE group do so and that children of these marriages can be initiated as Zoroastrians if either parent is a Zoroastrians with the WZO affirming at eighty five percent compared with seventy six percent for the ZTFE group.
Seventy percent of the WZO group affirms that the non-Zoroastrian spouse can undergo Naujote compared with fifty eight percent for the ZTFE group.
Ninety three percent of the WZO group affirms that the community should accept the inter-marrieds’ children compared with eighty five percent for the ZTFE group.
The WZO group affirmed that any non-Zoroastrian could undergo initiation rites at sixty nine percent rate of affirmation whereas the ZTFE group affirmed at fifty six percent.
Regarding access to Zoroastrian religious buildings there at least ten percentage points differences between the two groups regarding the prayer room in London with the WZO group affirming access at higher parentage points but regarding the Fire Temples in Iran and the sub-continent the two groups were much closer in terms of affirmation of access to non-Zoroastrians and these were at lower levels and never up to fifty percent.
The WZO group always affirmed at a higher percentage rate than the ZTFE group that non-Zoroastrians could attend funeral ceremonies at Brookwood cemetery; attend Favardigan/ Muktad ceremonies; Jashans and Gambars.
Thus, there is more percentage support by the WZO group for access by non-Zoroastrians to the Zoroastrian religion than the ZTFE group.
One might expect given differing the attitudes of the two groups to their religious practices, beliefs and the boundaries of the religious community that the two groups would identify themselves differently. However, the only difference in terms of ‘How do you identify yourself?’ is that ten percent of the ZTFE group affirm that they are ‘orthodox’ compared with five percent of the WZO group. The affirmation of the identities of ‘Liberal’, ‘Reformist’, ‘Meaningless terms’, ‘Non-practicing’ and ‘Other’ show little differences between the two groups.
There was no difference between the two groups in affirmation of ‘multiple identities’: in my other research on the Zoroastrian Diaspora in the UK, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, I have found that the Zoroastrians who affirm that they do not have ‘multiple identities’ support the religious practices, beliefs and values of Zoroastrianism at much higher levels than those Zoroastrians who say that they have ‘multiple identities’ and also, they do not support opening up the boundaries of the religious community.
In terms of identifying themselves as Iranian, Parsi or Zoroastrian there is little percentage affirmation between the two groups.
Similarly with ‘The place where you belong?’ and ‘Where is your homeland?’ there is little percentage point differences between the two groups.
The two groups differ in their attitudes to the religious practices and beliefs of Zoroastrianism and especially with regard to the boundaries of the religion and who is to be allowed access to the religious rituals and religious buildings. The WZO group whose organization, according to their web site, focus on informing ‘about Zarathushtra and Zoroastrianism and their work in improving the circumstances of needy Zoroastrians’ gives less percentage support for the religious beliefs and practices of Zoroastrianism than the ZTFE group but more support for giving access to the religion by non-Zoroastrians than the ZTFE group.
The ZTFE group has a point about charity in its Mission statement but its main concern is to enable the centre for Zoroastrians in London to continue to function. As a group they have more percentage support, as measured by the 2003 survey, for the religious values of Zoroastrianism than the WZO group.
In conclusion the group, WZO, who concentrates on its charity work in its web site, gives less affirmation for the religious beliefs and practices of Zoroastrianism than do the ZTFE group whose organization is the Zoroastrian religious centre in Europe and whose charitable aims are only one sixth part of its mission statement on its web- site. However, the WZO affirms more percentage support for access to Zoroastrianism for non-Zoroastrians than does the ZTFE group. In terms of self identity, religious identity and perceived ‘homeland’ and ‘place where they belong’ there is little difference between the two groups and from the research it has been found that these concepts are correlated with attitudes to religious values. Thus, the differences in attitudes between the two groups, as measured in the 2003 survey, appear to have a relationship with the aims of their organizations but the relationship is much more complex than this paper has indicated and further research is needed.