AIMZ at 15

With a kitty of Rs 42,000 contributed by Jimmy Master of Hong Kong, the Association of Inter-Married Zoroastrians (AIMZ) has been able to induct eight young children of indigent rural Zoroastrians into the community fold, stated Meher Amersey, president of the organization, at its 15th annual general meeting (AGM) on October 24, 2007. Amersey together with honorary secretary Vera Mahajan accompanied Ervad Khushroo Madan to Gujarat to arrange for the navjotes which will enable the youths to obtain jobs as chasniwalas in agiaries as well as obtain educational benefits at Parsi institutions. For three months in the year the rural community is occupied in farming but for the rest, there is scant source of income. The girls, once absorbed as boarders at the Bai Avabai F. Petit Girls’ High School in Bandra, have been known to evolve into well established professionals as they mature.

A topic of concern to the 21 members attending the AGM was the imminence of the trusteeship elections of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP). A series of court appeals have confused the community at large as to the dates for the holding of the first such election under universal adult franchise. Hitherto the trustees of the BPP were elected by an electoral college known as the Anjuman Committee. Even more than the rest of the community, AIMZ is concerned that the new incumbents of the BPP have a liberal bent of mind.

"We should know the candidate’s agenda – what s/he’ll do once s/he becomes a trustee,” noted Ervad Framroze Mirza, whose liberal approach to the problems of intermarriage, the acceptance of the progeny of Zoroastrian women married to men of other faiths and the right to the initial four-day prayers for those who opt for cremation, has led to him being branded a renegade by the orthodox priestly establishment. Mirza has consistently spoken against the inconsistency of preventing the first four-day prayers while allowing them subsequently: "After all, when a family opts for cremation, it’s because of the Punchayet’s fault, because the dakhmas are not working!” He also questioned the BPP’s stand vis-à-vis community properties. "There are lots of properties for which the Punchayet is fighting with the community. They are generally small, petty issues but it is spending crores on litigation.” One of these issues is the BPP stand that its property must be vacated in the event of the occupant acquiring a non-Parsi spouse.

Amersey, who had had the occasion to visit the Zoroastrian Association of Greater New York (ZAGNY) earlier in the year, shared her experience of the events she attended at their center in Pomona. ZAGNY president Homi Gandhi had inducted her into the FEZANA (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America) team for a three-day meet on global warming at the United Nations headquarters in New York, she told the assembled AIMZ members. Committee member Meher Rafat, who edits the AIMZ newsletter, read out Gandhi’s presentation on the preservation of the ecology from the Zarathushtrian stand point.

The AIMZ managing committee, which includes vice president Smita Crishna and honorary treasurer Khursheed Narang apart from Amersey, Mahajan and Rafat, was voted in for a renewed term of office, nobody else coming forward to share the burden of the stalwarts. Chartered accountants Burzy Maneksha and Company continue as the official auditors of the organization.

Arnavaz S. Mama