Into mainstream politics?

"It’s the play, not the score,” Ayesha Nariman told India’s Times News Network (The Sunday Times, November 3, 2002). The doughty 53-year-old grandniece of Khurshed Nariman after whom Bombay’s Nariman Point is named was probably the first Zarathushti woman to run for a seat in the US House of Representatives, notes the FEZANA Journal. In the heavily Republican district, which includes the Niagara Falls and the suburbs of Buffalo in New York State, Nariman faced the Republican Thomas Reynolds, a two-term Congressman. "Ms Nariman ... got the Democratic ticket because no one wanted it. The party has virtually ignored her after accepting her nomination... The Democratic Party gives an average of $ 98,000 per can-didate from its coffers, but Ms Nariman hasn’t seen a cent,” says the The Sunday Times. With a total budget of $ 10,000 Nariman gamely faced Reynolds who she said spent as much each day!

An MBA from the University of Buffalo with dual majors in Financial Institutions and Markets and Health Care Systems, Nariman has lived in Buffalo since 1982, serving as a financial advisor with American Express Financial Advisors, notes the Journal. Interested in political issues at the national level, Nariman’s preoccupations were to fight for a fiscally sound federal budget, to ensure that the trust funds of social security and medicare are not misused, to revamp medicare for the benefit of senior citizens, etc.

"Ayesha did lose, but there was stiff competition,” FEZANA Journal’s editor-in-chief Roshan Rivetna informed us.

Another Zoroastrian seeking an entry into mainstream politics was Nikan Khatibi, premedical student at the University of California, Irvine, and editor of the ‘Youthfully Speaking’ section of the Journal. He chose to run for the position of Councilman of Laguna Niguel, California, seeking to "contribute to my community and ... do the best to improve the quality of life for all.” Khatibi gamely ran a "zero dollar campaign” but lost out in the election, notes Rivetna.