Gender hostility

For close to 50 years the community has been debating the religious rights of Parsi women married to non-Parsis who have retained their faith.

Years back, some representatives of the Association of Inter-Married Zoroastrians (AIMZ) approached the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) regarding granting such women permission to enter agiaries and to be consigned to a Tower of Silence. They were diplomatically told to seek legal remedies. I am glad that one Gookrukh Mahipal Gupta, a former resident of Valsad has mustered the courage to file a public interest litigation in the Gujarat High Court, seeking an entry to the fire temple at the Mota Parsiwad in Valsad.

So long as a woman married to a non-Parsi keeps her faith and practices her religion, I find it totally illogical to debar her from entering our fire temples.

I know for a fact (in my earlier capacity as a chief executive officer of the BPP) that a Parsi woman (one Ms Malhotra) residing in Britain, had filed an affidavit with the BPP (where her husband was a co-signatory), desiring that her body should be consigned to the Tower of Silence. The affidavit was accepted, and a copy given to the manager of Doongerwadi, for record and reference.

It is a great shame that we deny women who cling to our faith entry to our religious places. An outmarried man has no such restrictions. Isn’t this absurd?

I wish that the Gujarat High Court gives a bold decision in favor of Gupta.

B. T. DASTUR