Miscellenea

The World Zoroastrian Organisation (WZO) — US Region has been formally established with former president of the Zoroastrian Association of Metropolitan Chicago (ZAC), Keki Bhote as president. The WZO (US)’s first project is to support the Fali Chothia scholarship Fund, administered by ZAC, by supplementing scholarships up to 50 percent, notes the ZAC newsletter (February 2003).

Scholars from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Iran joined their peers from Europe and North America at the Sixth Avesta Conference which concluded in Paris, France in November 2002 under the auspices of UNESCO. The annual event is jointly organized by the Rudaki Anjuman (Paris), Payvand Anjuman and the Ancient Cultural Anjuman (both of Tajikistan) along with the local organization of the host country, notes the ZAC newsletter (January 2003). On this occasion they were hosted by the Zarathushti Anjuman of France.

The 56 speakers covered a vast range of topics, from the Gathas to music in ancient Iran. "The five day event was very fruitful, for one could see and feel the unity of purpose among the participants... and their aim and hope for the revival of Greater Iran based on the teachings of Zarathushtra,” notes the newsletter ascribing the report to Creatingawareness — the e-mail group that is seeking to make the world aware of the religion, history and culture of Zoroastrians.

Bhote: first president of WZO (US)

Last year the ZAC newsletter had reprinted some interesting statistics provided by the Persian Students Association of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Iranian Association of Boston, the ILEX Foundation and the Iranian American Medical Association.

"The Iranian-American community is composed of approximately one million individuals. According to the 1990 census, 56 percent of Iranian-Americans hold Bachelor degrees or above and more than 26 percent hold graduate degrees, making them the highest educated minority group in the U.S. Iranian-Americans are the founders of some 280 major national firms, and the CEOs of more than 400 national companies, many of them among the Fortune 1,000 companies. The total contribution of our community to the U.S. economy is estimated at more than $ 400 billion...”

Somewhere in Washington DC on the outskirts of the US capital, a ground breaking ceremony heralds the arrival of a Zoroastrian Center and Darb-e-Mehr, notes the ZAC newsletter (May 2003). Twenty years in the dreaming and planning, the 24-year-old Zoroastrian Association of Metropolitan Washington Incorporated (ZAMWI) will now have "something really big... This will be a national center, a world center,” noted ZAMWI president Jamshid Goshtasbi as quoted by the Associated Press.