Paging WAPIZ

Continuing with their policy of boycotting the Parsi Press, the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) has decided to reach out to the community through the secular Press. Starting August 4, 2005, the traditionalist ‘world’ body published a full page advertisement highlighting their program and policies in the Afternoon Despatch and Courier.

A message from the WAPIZ chairman Areez Khambatta states the body has come "into existence to thwart all attempts on the part of those Zarthoshtis who want to disregard our traditions and practices under the guise of misplaced pragmatism.

"In my view preserving the Parsi Irani Zarthoshti identity is much more important than merely increasing the numbers. Intermarriages and conversions are not only a religious taboo for us but also a disaster that will dilute our ethnicity and sweep us into oblivion.

"We must explode the myth of conversion, so subtly introduced in the proposed foreign-based cosmopolitan world body, WZO (World Zoroastrian Organi­sation) and other organizations. These organizations have dropped the Parsi Irani identity and are open to converts and therefore, do not represent the Parsi Irani Zarthoshti community. The community must work together to expose these organizations.

"WAPIZ will usher in a new era of religious and cultural pride among our Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis and promote traditional Zarthoshti beliefs and practices fused to a Parsi Irani identity.”

Under the heading "Current Projects” the following are listed:

"Group medical insurance for full time practicing mobeds; relief to the flood affected in Gujarat; seeking higher heritage status for all our agiaries; medical and educational aid to the deserving members of the commuity.”

Another section ‘WAPIZ honors’ acknowledges the academic achievement of students Farzana Behram Wadia, Kaizad Farrokh Patel, Jehangir Nozer Tara and Afreen Nozer Tara.

Always provocative, Khambatta who is also president of the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat and a business magnate, has also included an item titled "Provoking thought” which states: "Several organizations that claim to be community organizations do not specify that only Parsis/Iranis can be beneficiaries. The constitutions of these new organizations refer simply to ‘Zoroastrians,’ thereby leaving the door open for the new breed of so-called Zoroastrian converts to legally make entry into these community institutions, in the future. Shouldn’t our leaders safeguard the future of our community by making sure that the term Parsi/Irani Zoroastrian is enshrined in every new community organization’s constitution?”

For those who can’t get enough of traditionalists’ news, take heart: the next "WAPIZ Page,” as it is referred to, was due to be published two weeks later.